APR  14  1QU. 


THE  FUSION  OF  STYLISTIC  ELEMENTS 
IN  VERGIL'S  GEORGICS 


BY 

META  GLASS 


Submitted  in  Partial  Fulfilment  of  the  Requirements 

FOR  the  Degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  in  the 

Faculty  of  Philosophy,  Columbia  University 


NEW  YORK 
1913 


THE  FUSION  OF  STYLISTIC  ELEMENTS 
IN  VERGIL'S  GEORGICS 


BY 

META  GLASS 


Submitted  in  Partial  Fulfilment  of  the  Requirements 

FOR  the  Degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  in  the 

Faculty  of  Philosophy,  Columbia  University 


NEW  YORK 
1913 


Press  of 

The  New  Era  Printing  compant 

Lancaster.  Pa 


1 '' 


CONTENTS 


Introduction v 

I.  Astronomical,  Geographical  and  Literary  Ref- 
erences    1 

II.  Word  Order 26 

III.  Euphonic  Devices 48 

IV.  Analysis  of  Special  Passages 69 

V.  Mental  Processes 78 

Bibliography 92 


282306 


INTRODUCTION 

Inasmuch  as  the  artistic  beauty  of  Vergil's  poetry  has  been 
acknowledged  and  enlarged  upon  throughout  the  ages,  there 
have  naturally  been  many  attempts  to  reach  the  source  of 
this  perfection,  or  at  least  to  travel  along  the  well-marked 
paths  in  the  poems  themselves  that  give  the  seeker  some 
glimpses  of  the  phases  of  Vergil's  fancy,  the  sensitiveness  of 
his  perceptions  of  beauty  in  form  and  color  and  sound,  and 
his  unique  ability  to  pass  on  these  perceptions  to  others  by 
use  of  the  various  means  of  poetic  expression.  In  the  study 
of  any  poet  who  so  avowedly  followed  a  model  as  did  Vergil, 
it  is  in  greatest  part  upon  these  manifestations  of  self,  the 
workings  of  mind  and  of  imagination,  that  a  knowledge  of 
that  poet  depends.  Under  these  conditions  Vergil's  work- 
manship and  what  it  reveals  become  all  the  more  important.^ 

No  less  in  the  other  two  works  than  in  the  Georgics  did 
Vergil  have  a  pattern,  but  for  his  own  individuality  in  develop- 
ing that  pattern  the  Georgics  are  most  fruitful.  The  Eclogues 
were  a  more  youthful  work,  in  a  style  to  a  great  extent  aban- 
doned later,  while  the  Georgics  have  sufficient  of  the  earlier 
and  likewise  of  the  later  development  to  represent  his  maturer 
powers  before  they  had  shed  any  of  their  possibilities.  The 
Aeneid  was  never  jfinished,  but  after  seven  years  of  writing 
and  rewriting  the  poet  was  content  to  let  the  Georgics  go 
from  his  hand.^  What  is  to  be  found  therein  must,  therefore, 
have  had  his  full  sanction,  must  have  approached  his  ideal  as 
nearly  as  an  author's  work  ever  does  approach  his  ideal,  and 
the  features  of  workmanship  traced  here  we  have  a  right  to 
deem  those  that  he  felt  most  fully  expressed  him. 

1  T.  H.  Wright,  Style,  speaks  of  style  as  an  involuntary  revelation  of  self. 

2  Donatus,  Vita  Vergili,  Chapters  22,  25. 


We  may  believe,  too,  that  the  poet  was  more  at  home  in  his 
material  in  this  poem  than  in  either  of  the  others.  The  tone 
of  seriousness  that  the  Georgics  have  as  compared  with  the 
Eclogues  was  surely  more  in  accordance  with  the  philosophical 
temperament  of  the  poet  who  was  fully  conscious  of  the 
lacrimae  reruvi,  and  in  portraying  Italy  as  a  veritable  biferi 
rosaria  Paesti  he  found  his  material  more  congenial  than  he 
later  found  the  wars  and  bloodshed  that  moulded  the  character 
of  Aeneas,  and  formed  the  prelude  to  the  glories  of  Rome. 
In  the  Georgics  he  spoke  whereof  he  knew  from  daily  sight  and 
hearing,  or  from  the  volumes  of  his  predecessors  which  he  had 
made  his  own. 

Because  the  poem  is  classed  as  didactic  literature,  which 
gained  an  unwonted  prominence  in  Alexandrian  times,  and 
because  of  Vergil's  use  of  Hesiod,^  of  Aratus,  of  Eratosthenes, 
and  of  Nicander,'*  because  of  his  former  allegiance  to  Theo- 
critus and  the  general  tendency  of  much  of  Roman  literature 
to  submit  to  Alexandrian  influence,  the  extent  to  which  Vergil 
came  under  this  influence,  and  the  use,  in  so  far  as  his  artistic 
expression  is  concerned,  which  he  made  of  the  knowledge 
gained  from  this  source  are  important  points  in  any  attempt 
to  estimate  the  poet  in  his  art. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  study  to  examine  the  Georgics 
from  this  point  of  view,  to  investigate  Vergil's  use  of  astro- 
nomical, geographical  and  literary  allusions,  his  elaborations 
of  word-order,  and  his  use  of  euphonic  embellishments,  and  to 
discover  what  glimpses  may  be  gained  of  the  personal  equation 
that  colored  his  perception  and  imagination  and,  consequently, 
his  artistic  expression. 

»  Servius  on  the  Georgics,  vol.  3,  p.  128. 

*  For  the  sources  in  general,  of.  Karl  Brandt,  De  auctoribus  quos  in  com- 
ponendis  Georgicon  libris  adumbravit  Vergilius. 


THE  FUSION  OF  STYLISTIC  ELEMENTS  IN 
VERGIL'S  GEORGICS 


ASTKONOMICAL,    GEOGRAPHICAL   AND    LiTERARY   REFERENCES 

In  any  study  of  elaboration  of  style  among  the  Romans,  the 
question  of  Greek  influence,  whether  coming  direct  from  the 
classical  period,  or  exerted  through  Alexandrian  scholars  and 
writers,  naturally  thrusts  itself  to  the  fore.  Certain  traits 
do  appear  in  Latin,  in  poetry  rather  than  in  prose,  the  counter- 
parts of  which  are  not  to  be  found  to  any  extent  in  classical 
Greek,  and  the  first  inference  is  that  the  Alexandrians  are 
responsible  for  them.  Aside  from  the  genius  of  the  two 
languages,  the  rhetorical  embellishments  found  in  Cicero,  in 
Livy,  in  Seneca  do  not  differ  in  aim,  nor  so  very  much  in 
means,  from  those  used  by  Thucydides  and  the  Greek  orators. 
But  the  poetry  of  Catullus,  of  Vergil,  of  Horace,  and  even 
more  that  of  the  writers  of  elegy  shows  devices  not  found  in 
the  lyric  poets  of  Greece,  nor  to  the  same  extent  in  the  drama- 
tists, though  Euripides  shows  the  beginning  of  the  use  of  many 
of  the  later  favorite  devices  for  securing  stylistic  effect. 

When  one  speaks  of  Alexandrianism,  probably  the  first 
thought  which  rises  in  the  mind  is  that  of  erudition,  and  in 
looking  for  traits  of  Alexandrian  influence  in  Latin  Hterature 
one  most  readily  notes  references  to  geography,  astronomy 
and  literature  in  general,  more  or  less  familiar  supposedly  to 
the  author's  public,  as  examples  of  this  influence.  When 
Catullus  introduces  into  so  personal  a  song  as  his  seventh 
poem,  where  he  pleads  that  Lesbia's  kisses  shall  be  as  many  as 


the  sands  of  the  desert  or  the  stars  of  the  firmament,  the 
restriction  that  the  sands  to  be  counted  are  those  of  the 
Libyan  desert  around  Cyrene  where  silphium  grows,  between 
the  oracle  of  sun-baked  Jupiter  Ammon  and  the  sacred  tomb 
of  Battus  of  old,  he  is  displaying  learning  pure  and  simple, 
and  is  in  so  far  a  follower  of  the  Alexandrian  school. 

So  large  a  word  as  laserpiciferis  may  make  the  sands  seem 
more  than  those  of  an  ordinary  desert,  and  they  are  indeed 
sands  of  distinguished  company,  but  to  the  sincerity  of  feeling 
that  the  second  simile  gives  such  elaboration  is  undoubtedly 
hostile.  If  Catullus  desired  the  almost  comic  touch  which 
the  verses  have  for  a  modern  reader,  he  has  succeeded  most 
skillfully  in  attaining  it,  but  the  weight  of  learning  and  sound 
in  them  is  all  the  slight  poem  could  sustain.  Such  a  use  as 
this  of  geographical  knowledge  is  far  to  seek  in  classical  Greek 
poetry.  The  local  setting  of  a  myth  or  of  an  actual  occurrence 
is  common  enough,  though  not  often  in  a  form  at  all  elaborate. 
Even  in  the  passages  grouping  rather  imposing  geographical 
names  that  may  be  quoted  from  the  Agamemnon  (281  ff.), 
where  the  course  of  the  fire  signals  that  bring  the  news  of 
Agamemnon's  approach  is  traced,  and  from  the  Prometheus, 
where  the  hero  foretells  her  wanderings  to  lo,  a  fellow  sufferer 
from  the  injustice  of  Zeus  (705  ff.),  the  references  are  of  the 
sort  that  would  be  classed  as  occasioned  by  the  narrative. 
The  mountain  peaks  named  in  the  Agamemnon  passage  were 
sufficiently  familiar  to  Aeschylus'  public  (all  were  in  countries 
with  which  Athens  had  had  intercourse  for  years)  to  give 
vividness  rather  than  vagueness  to  the  picture,  and  so  they 
show  no  striving  for  the  impressiveness  which  the  mention  of 
more  distant  and  less  known  regions  would  effect.  In  the 
Prometheus  lo's  wanderings  are  to  be  largely  around  the 
region  in  which  Prometheus  is  bound,  involving  places  quite 
closely  akin  to  the  setting  of  the  drama,  but  sufficiently  vague 
in  Aeschylus'  own  mind  to  make  the  course  almost  impossible 


for  one  to  follow.  Some  stylistic  effect  is  gained  by  each  of 
these  passages,  but  there  is  lacking  in  them  the  sense  of  effort 
and  the  flavor  of  learning  that  mark  many  such  references  in 
Latin  poetry.^ 

In  astronomical  references  the  Alexandrian  influence  is 
even  more  pronounced,  for  the  greater  study  devoted  to  the 
subject  in  these  times  yielded  the  works  of  Eratosthenes  and 
Aratus,  and  thus,  by  uniting  the  science  quite  definitely  with 
poetry,  made  it  available  for  the  less  technical  poets.^  The 
popularity  of  Aratus  among  the  Romans  before  Vergil  wrote 
is  attested  by  Cicero's  translation  of  his  ^atvofieva,  and  his 
continuance  in  favor  is  proved  by  the  paraphrase  of  Germani- 
cus  later.  Vergil's  own  use  of  him''  is  evidenced  in  the  first 
verse  of  the  Georgics,  where  he  purposes  to  sing  quo  sidere 
terram  vertere,^  and  only  a  few  verses  farther  on  astronomical 
science  is  drawn  upon  in  the  more  elaborate  description  of 
the  constellations  (I.  32-4)  among  which  the  deified  Caesar 
is  to  have  a  place.     So,  again,  after  the  golden  age,  when  man 

6  In  the  Medea  of  Euripides,  where  the  course  of  the  Argo  might  entail  such 
references,  they  are  quite  closely  connected  with  the  story  and  are  not  elaborate. 
There  is  mention  of  Chalcis,  the  Symplegades,  Corinth,  Athens  and  the  Cephis- 
sua.  In  the  Iphigenia  in  Tauris  the  Symplegades,  Taurica,  Argos,  Greece, 
Troy  and  Aulis  are  the  places  named.  Even  in  Pindar  the  place  designated  is 
the  home  of  the  hero,  or  the  scene  of  some  definite  exploit  described  in  the  myth. 
The  fourth  Pjd;hian,  which  deals  with  the  story  of  the  Argo,  does  not  mention 
the  course  in  detail,  but  says  "and  they  came  to  Phasis"  (375),  and  on  the 
return  voyage  (446-7)  "they  met  the  streams  of  Ocean,  the  Red  Sea  and  the 
race  of  Lemnian  women." 

«  Mahafify,  Greek  Life  and  Thought,  pp.  242-51. 

'  Both  the  ^at.v6/j.eva  and  the  Aioffrifieia  give  matter  used  by  Vergil  in 
Book  I  of  the  Georgics.  The  general  knowledge  of  the  constellations  and  their 
order  must  have  come  from  the  ^aivSfieva,  while  the  weather  signs  of  I.  351-463 
follow  much  of  the  Aioa-ij/j-eia. 

8  ^aivdneva  10  ff. 

Ai5t6s  yap  rdSe  c^/tiar'  ip  ovpavifi  iffr-^pi^ev 
'AffTpa  SiaKpivas  iffKhj/aTo  S'  eh  iviavrbv 
''karipas,  o'l  kc  fidXiffra  T€Tvyp.4va  <r7)p,alvoiev 
'' K.v5p6.<nVj  wpaluv  6<f>p'  f/xireda  irdvTa  (jtiuvrai. 


was  with  difficulty  forging  his  way  in  the  world,  the  sailor 
had  to  give  name  and  number  to  the  stars  (I.  138), 
Pleiadaa,  Hyadas,  claramque  Lycaonis  Arcton. 

With  verse  204  comes  the  more  definite  division  of  the  seasons 
by  the  position  of  constellations,  where  Arcturus  and  the 
Haedi  and  Anguis,  Libra,  the  Pleiades,  and  the  Crown  and 
Bootes  all  serve  as  signs  for  different  phases  of  the  farmer's 
activity.  Thus  the  zones  are  marked  out,^  and  the  sun's 
path  across  the  zodiac  and  the  moon,  too,  indicate  days  to  be 
chosen  or  shunned  for  varying  duties.  Again,  after  the 
description  of  the  spring  storm,  Vergil  returns  to  the  planets 
(I.  336-7),  pauses  to  prescribe  the  worship  of  Ceres  in  the 
fields,  and  then  pursues  further  the  signs  the  Father  has 
willed  the  moon  to  give  of  wind  and  rain  and  fair  weather. 
With  this  description  are  mingled  the  prophecies  of  birds  and 
beasts,  and  the  climax  is  reached  with  the  sun  (solem  certissima 
signa  sequuntur,  I.  439)  whose  pity  for  Rome  at  Caesar's 
death  made  him  hide  his  shining  face  in  murky  darkness. 
A  comparison  of  the  truly  poetic  and  beautiful  way  in  which 
Vergil  handles  the  science  that  he  borrows  with  the  technical 
and  unimaginative  work  of  Aratus^°  gives  but  another  instance 
of  his  fine  perception  of  the  poetic  possibilities  of  his  material, 
his  readiness  to  use  his  learning  always,  but  never  to  display 
it  to  the  detriment  of  artistic  harmonj\ 

Let  us  note  now  to  what  extent  the  Latin  writers  before 
Vergil  advised  the  farmer  to  depend  on  knowledge  of  the 
heavens.  As  one  would  expect,  Cato  gives  no  such  guide. 
He  designates  his  seasons  by  primo  vere,^^  per  sementim,^'^  per 
ver,^^  once  by  piro  florente,^^  as  also  by  cum  uva  floret,^^  per 

»  Eratosthenes  is  the  source  of  the  description  of  the  zones  and  the  path  of 
the  sun.     Compare  K.  Brandt,  op.  cit.,  p.  4. 
">  Couat,  La  pofeie  alexandrine,  pp.  445  ff. 
"  De  Agri  Cultura,  50. 
« lb.  61. 
»Ib.  121. 
»  lb.  41,  161. 


solstitium,^^  per  vindemiam,^^  and  declares :  "ficos,  oleas,  mala, 
pira,  mtes  inseri  oportet  luna  silenti  post  meridiem  sine  vento 
austro."^^  There  is  not  a  single  star  to  guide  in  the  De  Agri 
Cultura.  Varro  shows  the  man  of  learning  in  his  designations. 
He  too  uses  piro  fiorente  (I.  37.5)  to  date  a  season,  but  his  real 
divisions  are  much  more  scientific.  Scrofa,  his  mouthpiece, 
notes  the  four  seasons  according  to  the  position  of  the  sun; 
yet  this  is  not  sufiicient,  and  the  year  is  divided  into  eight 
intervals  designated  thus:  "a  favonio  ad  aequinoctium 
vernum,  hinc  ad  vergiliarum  exortum,  ab  hoc  ad  solstitium, 
inde  ad  caniculae  signum,  dein  ad  aequinoctium  autumnale, 
exin  ad  vergiliarum  occasum,  ab  hoc  ad  brumam,  inde  ad 
favonium."^^  The  proper  activities  for  each  division  are  set 
forth  in  order,  and  not  content  with  this,  Varro  adds  the 
divisions  of  the  month  into  waxing  and  waning  moon,  and 
specifies  things  proper  to  one  phase  or  another.  In  Vergil's 
guidance  of  the  farmer  first  by  the  rising  and  setting  of  the 
constellations,  then  by  the  moon,  and  again  by  the  sun,  one 
is  reminded  of  Varro's  treatment,  but  the  poet  has  said 
nothing  of  eight  divisions,  nor  does  he  even  run  the  risk  of 
dryness  by  uniform  designations  of  the  time-divisions  he  does 
make. 

In  the  other  three  books  of  the  Georgics  astronomy  plays 
no  part  at  all,  yet  there  is  a  similar  enriching  but  restrained 
use  of  geographical  and  literary  allusions  with  a  kindred 
artistic  effect.  The  purposes  served  by  localizing  epithets 
may  roughly  be  classed  as  four:  (1)  to  state  a  fact  the  mention 
of  which  is  occasioned  by  the  narrative,  (2)  to  designate  a 
deity  by  the  place  of  birth  or  worship,  (3)  to  define  a  common 
object  by  the  place  of  its  origin  or  excellence,  (4)  to  make 
specific  some  abstract  idea.  Instances  of  the  first  usage 
should  not  be  classed  as  means  to  a  stylistic  effect,  except 

»Ib.  40.  1. 

»6  De  Re  Rustica,  I.  28. 


in    so    far    as    an    author    shows    a   fondness    for   choosing 
his  subject  to  afford  an  opportunity  for  their  use.     Despite 
the  instance  of  Alexandrianism  cited  above  (page  2)  from 
Catullus,  and  his  more  happy  use  in  the  eleventh  poem  of 
far-off  India  beaten  by  the  eastern  wave,  the  Hyrcanians, 
Arabians,  Parthians  and  Scythians,  the  region  of  the  seven- 
mouthed  Nile,  the  land  across  the  Alps  beside  the  Rhine  and 
off  to  Britain's  farthest  edge  to  designate  the  distances  to 
which  the  affection  of  his  comrades  would  bid  them  follow  him, 
Catullus'  geographical  allusions  are  oftener  occasioned  by  his 
narrative  than  deliberately  sought.     The  choice  of  subject 
matter  in  poems  sixty-four  and  sixty-six  is  largely  responsible 
for  the  definite  places  mentioned,  though  even  in  these  a  more 
general  notion  is  made  specific  by  this  means. ^'^    To  references 
occasioned  by  t'he  narrative  belong  the  places  named  in  the 
fourth  poem,  though,  of  course,  there  is  some  choice  of  what 
will  be  mentioned  and  what  passed  by.     The  references  to 
Spain  in  the  poems  touching  Veranius  and  Fabullus  (9.  6; 
12.  14)  and  those  to  Bithynia  just  after  his  return  from  that 
province  are  of  this  direct  character  (10.  7;  31.  5;  46.  4,  5,  6).^^ 
The  use  of  names  of  places  to  designate  the  divinity  who  is 
worshiped  there  occurs  with  similar  frequency  in  Catullus  and 
the  Georgics  (some  ten  times  in  Catullus  and  twelve  times  in 
the  Georgics),  but  it  is  a  greater  favorite  apparently  with 
Horace,  who  in  Book  I  of  the  Odes  so  designates  the  gods  some 
sixteen  times.     The  place-names  so  used  vary  little  in  their 
probable  familiarity  to  the  public;  in  general  they  are  fairly 
well-known,  and,  though  there  is  inherent  in  them  the  power 
of  a  vivid  picture  to  one  who  has  seen  the  place,  their  use  is 
so  frequent  throughout  literature,  Greek  as  well  as  Roman, 
that  they  tend  to  become  colorless  synonyms  for  the  deity's 
name.     To  Catullus  Hymen  is  a  dweller  on  Mount  Helicon 

»"  Catullus,  64.  35-7,  75,  105,  156,  178. 

»»  Compare  also  Catullus,  29.  3,  4,  18,  19,  20;  34.  7;  35.  3,  4;  63.  2.  70,  91; 
64.  5,  52,  74.  121,  172;  66.  12,  36. 


because  he  is  the  son  of  a  Muse  (61.  1),  for  which  reason  also 
he  is  bidden  to  leave  the  Aonian  caves  of  the  Thespian  cliff 
(61.  27-8);  Venus  is  colens  Idalium  (61.  17).  The  deified 
Arsinoe  is  Zephyritis  because  her  temple  was  on  the  prom- 
ontory of  Zephyrion  (66.  57);  Trivia  when  not  seen  in  the 
sky  is  on  Mount  Latmos  with  Endymion,  to  whom  there  was 
a  sanctuary  there."  So  in  36.  11-17  Venus  unnamed  is 
identified  by  seven  places  of  worship  before  she  is  called  on 
to  mark  the  vow  as  paid : 

Nunc  o  caeruleo  creata  ponto 

quae  sanctum  Idalium  Vriosque  apertos, 

quaeque  Ancona,  Cnidumque  harundinosam 

colis,  quaeque  Amathunta,  quaeque  Golgos, 

quaeque  Durrachium  Hadriae  tabernam, 

acceptum  face  redditumque  votum, 

si  non  inlepidum  neque  invenustum  est. 

In  Horace  Venus  is  diva  potens  Cypri  (I.  3.  1),   Cytherea 
(I.  4.  5);  Clio's  name  iocosa  imago  is  to  reproduce 

aut  in  umbrosis  Heliconis  oris 

aut  super  Pindo  gelidove  in  Haemo  (I.  12.  5-6); 

Cybele  is  Dindymene  (I.  16.  5);  Dionysus,  son  of  Semele  of 
Thebes  (I.  19.  2);  Diana  joys  in  the  groves  of  Algidus  or 
Erymanthus  or  Cragos  (I.  21.  6,  7,  8).  Again,  Venus  is 
regina  Cnidi  Paphique  (I.  30.  1),  and  Fortuna,  diva  gratum 
quae  regis  Antium  (I.  35.  1). 

In  the  Georgics  Pan  is  the  only  deity  in  the  opening  invo- 
cation so  localized:  reference  is  made  to  his  haunts  on  Lycaeus, 
at  Tegea,  or  on  Maenala  (I.  16,  17,  18),  while  elsewhere  even 
the  planet  Mercury  is  called  Cyllenius  (I.  337),  and  later  the 
Indigites,  Romulus  and  Vesta  are  given  a  home  at  Rome  by  the 
Tiber  (I.  499).  Jove  is  the  Dictaean  king  (II.  536).  The 
Muses  the  poet  will  bring  from  their  Aonian  mount  (III.  11); 
the  master  of  Cyllarus  is  Pollux  of  Amyclae  (III.  89) ;  the  love 
of  Parnassus  of  the  Muses  leads  Vergil  in  their  worship  up  its 

19  Paus.  V.  1.  5. 


steeps  and  down  the  gently  sloping  path  to  Castalia  (III. 
291  fF.).  The  guardian  of  the  meadow  for  the  bees  is  to  be 
Priapus  from  the  Hellespont  (IV.  Ill) ;  Jove  is  the  king  in  the 
Dictaean  cave  (IV.  152),  and  Aristaeus'  father  is  Thymbraeus 
Apollo  (IV.  323). 

Both  Vergil  and  Horace  show  a  great  fondness  for  identi- 
fying objects  with  the  place  of  their  origin  and  for  making 
general  ideas  specific  by  the  names  of  certain  localities. 
Sellar-"  draws  a  contrast  between  Horace  and  Propertius  along 
this  line:  "Though  Horace,  for  the  form  of  his  art,  for  some- 
thing of  his  thought  and  much  of  his  diction,  goes  back  to 
Homer  and  the  Greek  lyric  and  tragic  poets,  yet  in  his  use  of 
Greek  mythology  as  a  kind  of  storehouse  of  romantic  adven- 
ture, and  in  his  numerous  geographical  allusions,  we  see  that 
he  is  yielding  to  tastes  formed  and  fostered  by  Alexandrian 
learning.  But  if  we  compare  Horace  in  these  respects  with 
so  thorough  an  Alexandrian  as  Propertius,  we  find  that  it  is 
the  personages  and  tales  of  mythology  familiar  from  Homer 
and  Pindar  and  the  Greek  tragedians,  not  the  obscurer  beings 
and  more  artificial  fancies  of  later  creation,  that  live  for  us 
again  in  the  Odes,  and  that  his  geographical  allusions  are  not 
introduced  as  so  much  dead  learning,  but  give  new  life  to  his 
subject  by  names  which  stirred  the  imagination  in  his  own 
day  with  the  thought  of  distant  lands,  or  wild  and  wandering 
tribes  on  the  confines  of  the  Empire,  or  seas,  suggestive  of 
the  enterprise  of  the  present  time  and  the  memories  of  a  more 
adventurous  past."  Professor  Shorey^^  classes  as  one  of  the 
chief  compensations  that  relieve  Horace's  plainness  or  par- 
simony of  vocabulary  and  imagery  the  use  of  proper  names 
charged  with  associations  of  mythology,  history,  literature 
and  travel.  "More  than  seven  hundred  distinct  proper  names 
or  adjectives,"  he  says,  "are  employed  in  the  Odes,  a  sixth  of 

*"  Horace  and  the  Elegiac  Poets,  p.  147. 

2'  Shorey  and  Laing,  Horace,  Odes  and  Epodes,  Introd.,  pp.  xxiv-xxv. 


the  total  vocabulary.  The  fourth  book  of  the  Golden  Trea- 
sury contains  less  than  two  hundred,  and  an  equal  amount  of 
Greek  lyric  presents  at  the  most  three  or  four  hundred,  mostly 
persons  known  to  the  poet  or  gods  directly  invoked.  In  the 
learned  rhetoric  of  Lucan  and  Statius  mythological  and  geo- 
graphical allusion  passes  into  the  conundrum.  The  tact  of 
Horace  selects  just  those  names  which  will  arouse  pleasant 
associations  in  the  mind  of  the  average  educated  man,  and 
which  will  adorn  without  overloading  his  style."  Vergil  in 
the  Georgics  uses  some  602  proper  names,^^  ^  gj-gat  many  of 
which  involve  naming  an  object  by  the  name  of  the  deity  in 
whose  province  it  lies,  as  Ceres  for  grain,  Bacchus  for  wine, 
and  the  winds  by  their  specific  names,  Auster,  Zephyrus, 
Boreas,  etc. 

In  Book  I  of  the  Odes  Horace  in  40  cases^^  describes  an 
object  by  means  of  the  place  where  it  is  indigenous  or  well 
known.  Vergil  in  the  whole  of  the  Georgics  has  only  82 
cases.24  Thus,  cranes  are  Strymoniae  grues  (I.  120);  lentils, 
Pelusicae  lentis  (I.  228);  the  sling  is  Balearis  fundae  (I.  309). 
Dodona  comes  to  denote  the  acorn  because  of  Jove's  sacred 
oak  groves  there  (I.  149).  The  laurel  is  Parnasia  laurus 
(11.  18)  though  it  is  planted  on  an  Italian  farm,  and  the 
myrtle  is  Paphian  (II.  64).  Cypresses  are  Idaean  (II.  84),  and 
the  olive  is  the  Sicyonia  baca  (II.  519).  So  the  palm  is 
Olympic  because  it  is  won  there  (III.  49) ;  the  gad-fly  is  made 
to  swarm  about  the  groves  of  Silarus;  the  Greek  games  are 
represented  by  the  Alpheus  or  by  Pisa  (III.  19,  180) ;  to  the 

22  In  Book  I  there  are  145  examples;  in  II,  145;  in  III,  144;  in  IV,  168. 

«  See  I.  1.  3,  10,  13,  19,  28,  34;  8.  6;  14.  11;  15.  17;  16.  9;  18.  9;  19.  6;  20.  1, 
9;  22.  2;  23.  10;  24.  13;  26.  9,  11;  27.  2,  5,  21;  29.  9,  15;  31.  4,  5,  6,  7,  9,  12;  33. 
7;  35.  7;  36.  10,  14;  37.  5,  6,  14,  20,  30;  38.  1. 

2^  I.  120,  149,  228,  265,  309;  II.  18,  64,  67,  84,  88,  90,  91,  96,  97,  98,  116,  117, 
120,  121,  122,  126,  143,  176,  193,  197,  198,  224,  225,  437,  438,  448,  506.  519; 
III.'  12,  17,  19,  33,  43-4,  49,  115,  121,  146,  147,  151,  I8O2,  202,  204,  249,  255, 
268.  306,  307,  312.  345,  405,  425,  450,  626,  551;  IV.  41,  119,  177,  270,  283,  287, 
334,  379,  380,  545. 


10 

tiger  is  given  a  home  in  Libya  (III.  249),  to  the  boar  one  in 
SabelHan  territory  (III.  256);  while  fleece  is  Milesian  (III. 
306).  The  dog  is  Amyclean  and  the  quiver  Cretan  even  when 
the  African  herdsman  has  them  in  the  long  stretches  of  the 
desert  (III.  345).  The  epithets  are  hardly  fitting  in  the  last 
citation,  but  the  verse  that  contains  them  both, 

armaque  Amyclaeumque  canem  Cressamque  pharetram, 
by  its  alliteration,  its  repeated  -que,  the  way  in  which  the 
vowels  vary  round  the  a  and  e  sounds  must  have  made  Vergil 
deem  the  verse  justified  by  its  own  perfection,  despite  its 
artificial  touch.^^  This  is  the  only  case  of  so  unfitting  an 
epithet;  in  geographical  allusions,  as  elsewhere,  there  is  evi- 
dence in  Vergil  of  fine  discrimination  in  the  aptness  and 
frequency  of  use  of  such  attributes. 

Most  arbitrary  of  all  geographical  references  are  those 
used  to  make  specific  some  abstract  idea  or  more  general 
concept.  They  touch  the  preceding  classification  in  that  there 
must  be  a  certain  fitness  in  them  to  their  purpose,  but  neither 
the  origin  of  the  object  nor  the  fame  of  the  place  for  it  deter- 
mines their  choice.  They  are  borrowings,  conscious  or  un- 
conscious, from  literary  sources,  or  they  are  due  to  associations 
in  the  author's  own  experience,  and  their  effect  upon  his 
style  is  the  same  in  either  case. 

We  find  Horace  thus  making  specific  any  sea  for  traffic  by 
the  Myrtoan  and  again  by  the  Icarian  (C.  I.  1.  14,  15),  and 
the  sea  is  frequently  so  treated.  Now  it  is  the  Adriatic,  on 
which  Horace  must  have  suffered  in  view  of  his  stormy 
memory  of  it,  now  the  Tyrrhenian.^^  Again,  the  Empire's 
foes  are  made  vivid  as  the  Persians  and  Medes  (I.  2.  22,  51), 
or  the  Marsi  (I.  2.  39)  are  used  to  denote  a  bitter  foe,  or  the 
Parthians,  Scythians  and  Indians  (I.   12.  53,  56).-^    So  as 

"  See  below  pp.  48-63. 

«  For  the  general  idea  of  the  harshness  of  the  Adriatic,  cf.  C.  III.  9.  23.  I.  33. 
15.     For  specific  seas,  cf.  I.  3.  15;  11.  6;  14.  20;  16.  4;  26.  2. 
"  Compare  I.  19.  10,  12;  21.  15;  35.  40. 


11 

dangerous  places  are  named  Acroceraunia  (I.  3.  20),  the 
Syrtes,  Caucasus,  the  shores  of  the  Hydaspes  (I.  22.  5,  7,  8), 
aequor  Atlanticum  (I.  31.  14).  In  the  seventh  Ode  of  the 
first  book  famous  places  of  the  Greek  world  are  marshalled  to 
give  way  before  the  delights  of  Tibur  and  the  Anio.  Book  I 
of  the  Odes  shows  in  all  44  instances  of  such  arbitrary  locali- 
zation.^^ 

In  the  Georgics  the  number  is  greater,  but  the  proportion 
about  the  same,  there  being  122  instances  in  the  2186  verses 
of  the  four  books.  In  the  first  book  of  the  Georgics  man's 
food  before  he  had  learned  from  Ceres  was  the  acorn  of 
Chaonia  (I.  8),  his  drink  the  Achelous  (I.  9).  As  the  farmer 
must  observe  where  on  his  farm  to  plant  grain,  grapes,  fruit- 
trees  and  grass,  so  over  the  wide  earth  India  bears  one  thing, 
Tmolus  another,  while  from  the  land  of  the  Chalybes  and 
Pontus  (I.  519)  and  Epirus  come  different  products.  So  the 
fruitful  land  is  Mysia,  and  more  specifically  Gargara  (I.  102). 
The  sailor  is  he  who  tempts  the  Pontus  and  the  narrows  at 
oyster-bearing  Abydus  (I.  207).  Frequently  the  points  of 
the  compass  are  designated  by  the  countries  lying  in  the 
desired  quarter.  The  north  is  Scythia  (I.  240),  the  land  of 
the  Hyperboreans  (III.  196),  Scythia,  the  region  of  Lake 
Maeotis,  the  Hister  and  Rhodope  (III.  349-51),  or  again  the 
region  lying  beneath  the  Hyperborean  Wain  exposed  to  Eurus 
as  he  comes  over  the  Riphaean  mountains  (III.  381).  The 
south  is  Libya  (I.  241);  the  east  is  the  country  of  the  Arabs 
and  the  Geloni  (II.  115),  or  the  land  along  the  Euphrates 
(IV.  561).  The  birds  that  foretell  rain  are  those  that  dive  into 
the  crevices  of  the  Caystrian  meadows  (I.  384);  the  Italian 
farmer's  pleasant  valley  is  Tempe  (II.  469);  the  poet's  own 
chosen  haunts  lie  along  the  Spercheus  and  on  the  'revel- 
ground'  of  Taygetus  (II.  487).     The  bees  come  forth  thick  as 

"C.I.  1.14,  15;  2.  13,  14,  22,  39,  51;  3.  15,  20;  7.  1-11  (12  names);  8.16;  11. 
6;  12.  53,  56;  14.  20;  16.  4;  19.  10,  12;  21.  15;  22.  5,  7,  8,  14,  15;  26.  2,  3;  31.  14; 
33.  15;  34.  10,  11;  35.  7,  9,  40. 


12 

the  arrows  the  Parthians  shoot  (IV.  314) ;  the  farmer  with  a  good 
dog  fears  no  hostile  Iberian  (III.  408).  In  two  longer  passages 
something  of  the  same  freedom  of  localization  is  seen — in 
II.  136-76,  in  the  praise  of  Italy  and  of  the  rich  foreign  lands 
with  which  it  is  contrasted,  and  in  IV.  365-73,  in  the  list  of 
the  rivers  Aristaeus  sees  when  he  goes  down  into  the  halls  of 
his  ocean  mother.  The  choice  of  these  rivers  seems  most 
arbitrary,  for,  with  the  exception  of  the  Tiber,  the  Anio  and 
the  Po,  named  for  their  nearness  and  dearness,  they  are  neither 
great  nor  storied  enough  to  justify  the  wonder  Aristaeus  feels 
before  them.  When  Cicero  mentions  the  Hypanis  (Tusc.  I. 
39.  94)  in  an  illustration,  he  takes  pains  to  say  where  it  is, 
and  to  point  out  that  Aristotle  is  responsible  for  what  he  knows 
about  it;  references  to  this  river  elsewhere  are  confined 
largely  to  geographical  writers.  The  use  of  the  Lycus  is 
equally  unaccounted  for.  Some  six  or  more  rivers  bear  the 
name;  Lewis  and  Short  decide  in  favor  of  the  one  in  Paphla- 
gonia  for  Vergil's  reference  here,  though  Servius  puts  it  in 
Syria.  So  unidentified  a  stream  would  serve  only  for  impres- 
sive strangeness.  The  Caicus  and  the  Enipeus  are  better 
known,  but  when  one  thinks  of  all  the  larger  and  more  famous 
rivers  that  the  poet  has  passed  by  to  name  these  less  impressive 
streams,  which  boast  not  even  especially  musical  names  to 
justify  their  choice,  it  would  seem  that  he  is  taking  some 
combination  of  names  that  had  elsewhere  fallen  under  his  eye, 
or  that  he  is  yielding  to  a  bit  of  vanity  in  his  erudition.  The 
combination  eludes  our  eye  before  Vergil's  time,  but  it  is 
easy  enough  to  see  what  must  have  been  before  Ovid  when 
he  wrote  Metamorphoses  XV.  273-9  where  the  Lycus,  the 
Hypanis  and  the  Caicus  all  appear  serving  in  another  guise. 
The  eight  rivers  that  Vergil  names  are  separated  widely  enough 
to  designate  north,  east  and  west,  but  the  order  of  their 
mention,  which  brings  one  from  Chalcis  to  Paphlagonia,  or 
elsewhere,  to  Thessaly,  to  Italy,  to  Scythia,  to  Mysia  and 


13 


back  to  Italy,  and  the  fact  that  no  southern  stream  is  men- 
tioned, do  not  favor  the  supposition  that  the  author  meant  to 
represent  the  waters  from  all  quarters  of  the  earth  meeting 
in  Gyrene's  halls.  In  the  second  book  (136  ff.)  the  east  is 
again  called  on  to  typify  the  rich  lands  that  yet  can  not  equal 
Italy.  Not  the  forests  of  the  Medes,  not  the  Ganges  and  the 
Hermus,  nor  Bactria,  nor  India,  nor  Panchaia  deserves  such 
measure  of  praise.  Here  again  the  vague  and  far-off  lands 
are  chosen,  but  at  the  same  time  their  fame  is  such  that  they 
readily  give  the  desired  effect,  and  the  richness  of  sound  in  the 

closing  line, 

totaque  turiferis  Panchaia  pinguis  harenis, 

sums  up  a  mass  of  wealth  to  set  against  Italy's  charms.  In 
Italy  itself  places  of  fertility  or  beauty,  or  where  man's  work, 
or  where  the  men  themselves  are  great,  are  enumerated,  and 
its  superiority  is  sealed  in  the  last  verse,  where  Italy's  son, 
victorious,  is  turning  the  Indians  from  Rome's  citadel  (II. 
172). 

In  somewhat  the  same  fashion  Vergil  arbitrarily  identifies 
the  features  of  the  lower  world  just  as  he  does  the  regions 
above.  In  Lucretius  we  find  the  under-world  designated  by 
Orcus  twice  (I.  115.  VI.  762),  by  Tartarus  three  times  (III. 
42,  966,  1012),  by  Acheron  or  its  adjective  Acherusia  eight 
times  (ill.  37,  86,  628,  978,  984,  1023.  IV.  37,  170);  there  is 
no  mention  of  the  Styx,  of  Gocytus,  or  of  Avernus,  except  to 
explain  the  physical  nature  of  the  lake  and  to  disprove  its  con- 
nection with  the  lower  world.  Vergil  calls  the  region  Tartarus 
when  he  sets  aside  the  possibility  of  Caesar's  becoming  king 
there  (I.  36) ;  next  it  is  the  dark  Styx  that  sees  the  pole  of 
heaven  that  is  opposite  our  own  (I.  243);  then  it  is  into 
Tartarus  that  the  oak  sends  its  roots  (II.  292),  and  fittingly 
it  is  the  noise  of  greedy  Acheron  that  Nature's  great  poet  has 
put  beneath  his  feet  forever,  where  that  poet  is  plainly  Lucre- 
tius (II.  492).     It  is  the  cruel  stream  of  Gocytus  that  the 


14 

figure  of  Envy  on  Vergil's  great  temple  to  Caesar  shall  fear  (III, 
38),  but  from  the  darkness  of  Styx  Tisiphone  is  sent  up  for 
her  cruel  proj^ress  among  the  flocks  (III.  551).  It  is  the  jaws 
of  Hell  at  Taenarus  that  Orpheus  enters  (IV.  467),  after  which 
the  shades  of  Erebus  (IV.  471)  are  stirred  by  his  song,  and  he 
goes  on  to  see  the  streams  of  Cocytus  and  Styx  and  Death's 
secret  Tartarus.  But  it  is  the  waters  of  Avernus  that  echo 
thrice  after  Eurydice's  recall,  nor  will  the  harbor  official  in 
Orcus  suffer  Orpheus  to  return,  though  Eurydice  is  moving 
off  across  the  Styx  (IV.  502-6).  Vergil  seems  to  have  ex- 
hausted all  the  names  his  language  knew  for  the  under-world, 
and  yet  there  is  such  skill  in  their  use  that  no  casual  reader 
would  ever  stop  to  think  how  the  poet  was  varying  his  designa- 
tions. The  contrast  with  Lucretius'  usage,  as  seen  above, 
shows  the  Alexandrian  touch,  but  there  is  ample  restraint  in 
the  elaboration. 

The  frequent  references  to  the  East  in  both  Vergil  and 
Horace  would  naturally  be  most  effective  at  this  time,  when 
its  intercourse  with  Rome  had  been  so  greatly  increased,  and 
even  the  transfer  of  the  Empire  from  Rome  to  the  East  by 
Antony  was  feared.  To  express  the  ideas  of  distance  and 
wealth  no  other  countries  had  so  good  a  claim.  Even  the 
poets  had  learned  since  Catullus'  day  that  Britain  had  not 
the  wealth  Mamurra  squandered.  Where  the  east  and 
north  and,  in  general,  where  distant  lands  are  named,  the 
references  savor  of  literature,  sometimes  even  of  technical 
literature,  but  naturally,  where  the  places  are  those  of  Italy, 
the  flavor  is  of  acquaintance  and  experience.  It  is  to  Mantua 
that  Vergil  would  bring  the  palms  of  Palestine  which  he  will 
win  by  his  triumph  in  poetry  (III.  12),  and  he  will  raise  his 
temple  to  Caesar  beside  the  Mincius  whose  green  fields,  slow- 
moving  bends  and  reed-covered  banks  he  takes  pains  to 
mention  as  a  fit  scene  for  his  glorious  structure.  A  few  verses 
farther  on  Greece,  the  Alpheus,  and  the  groves  of  Molorchus, 


15 

in  which  are  hidden  the  Nemean  games,  are  but  names  with 
no  description.  The  Po,  king  of  rivers,  has  been  known  to 
overflow  all  the  fields,  tearing  up  whole  forests  and  carrying 
off  herds  and  their  stalls  as  well  (I.  481-3).  Ameria  (I.  265) 
yields  staves,  as  Massicus  and  the  Falernian  fields  and  Amin- 
nea  produce  wine,  and  Crustumeria  pears  (II.  88-97).  Cli- 
tumnus  has  along  its  banks  white  flocks  and  the  great  sacri- 
ficial bull,  who  bathe  in  its  stream  and  later  join  in  the  Roman 
triumph  to  the  temples  of  the  gods  (II.  146-8).  So  Larius, 
Benacus,  the  Lucrine  and  Avernian  lakes  are  pictured  as  by 
one  who  had  both  seen  and  heard  them:  II.  159-64 

te,  Lari  Maxime,  teque, 
fluctibus  et  fremitu  adsurgens,  Benace,  marino? 
an  memorem  portus  Lucrinoque  addita  claustra 
atque  indignatum  magnis  stridoribus  aequor, 
lulia  qua  ponto  longe  sonat  unda  refuse 
Tyrrhenusque  fretis  immittitur  aestus  Averms?^' 

Mantua  has  the  familiar  touch  as  described  in  II.  198-9 

et  qualem  infelix  amisit  Mantua  campum 
pascentem  niveos  herboso  flumine  cycnos, 

and  with  the  stretches  around  Tarentum  it  shares  the  following 
verses  II.  200-202, 

non  liquid!  gregibus  fontes,  non  gramina  deerunt, 
et  quantum  longis  carpent  armenta  diebus 
exigua  tantum  gelidus  ros  nocte  reponet. 

The  gad-fly  about  the  groves  of  Silarus  and  Albernum,  green 
with  its  oaks,  torments  the  herds,  which  flee  in  fright  from  the 
forests  and  the  woods,  and  the  air  and  the  banks  of  dwindling 
Tanager  resound  to  their  lowing  (III.  146-51).  So  we  know 
that  an  eye-witness  is  describing  the  old  Corycian's  small 
farm  beneath  the  towers  of  Oebalia's  citadel  where  the  dark 
Galaesus  waters  the  yellowing  fields  (IV.  125-6). 

29  And  in  my  head,  for  half  the  day, 
The  rich  Vergilian  rustic  measure 

Of  Lari  Maxime,  all  the  way. 
Like  ballad-burthen  music,  kept. 


16 

We  find,  then,  the  mystery  that  stimulates  the  imagination, 
the  association  to  the  cultured  reader,  often  the  pleasing  sound 
in  the  names  of  distant  places  that  Vergil  uses  knowingly  to 
heighten  his  effects.  Sometimes  the  association  seems  vague 
and  the  learning  a  little  heavy,  to  the  modern  reader  at  least, 
but  the  real  and  vivid  pictures  of  things  nearer  home  and 
experience  relieve  the  mere  book  learning  and  make  one  less 
inclined  to  call  Vergil's  use  of  geography  Alexandrian,  at  least 
to  the  point  of  abuse.  He  has  more  of  geographical  reference 
than  Lucretius,  but  not  much  more  than  Catullus,  and  no 
more  than  Horace,  while  they  all  fall  short  of  the  extent  to 
which  Propertius  was  imbued  with  love  of  it.  The  account  of 
the  constant  and  wide  travel  over  the  Empire  described  by 
Friedlaender^°  makes  one  realize  how  familiar  the  names  of 
many  places  even  far-off  would  be  to  the  Roman  public, 
through  oflBcial  happenings  and  the  common  talk  of  the  street 
without  any  acquaintance  through  literature  proper.  Real 
literature,  too,  in  one  of  its  most  popular  forms,  the  comedies 
of  Plautus  and  Terence,  had  long  before  taken  the  privilege 
of  wide  and  frequent  reference  to  places  remote  from  Italy  in 
translations  and  adaptations  of  Greek  originals.^^  The 
Scythians,  Hyperboreans,  Dacians  and  Iberians  were  beyond 
the  geography  of  Plautus  and  Terence,  but  the  East  and 
Africa  served  the  same  purpose  even  then,  when  the  touch 
was  more  purely  Alexandrian  than  it  became  after  the  activi- 
ties of  Lucullus,  Pompey,  Caesar  and  Augustus.  In  the 
Curculio  438-48  Curculio  explains  why  the  miles  has  not 
come  in  person  for  the  meretrix:  "It  is  only  three  days  since 
the  soldier  and  I  arrived  in  Caria  from  India;  he  stayed  there 
to  have  a  statue  of  himself  set  up  to  commemorate  his  exploits, 
because  Persas,  Paphlygonas,  Sinopas,  Arabas,  Caras, 
Cretanos,    Syros,    Rhodiam,    atque    Lyciam,    Perediam    et 

»"  Friedlaender,  Sittengeschichte,  8te  Auflage,  pp.  97-292,  2ter  Toil. 
"  C.  Knapp,  Travel  in  Ancient  Times  as  Seen  in  Plautus  and  Terence,  CI. 
PhU.  II.  pp.  1-24.  281-304. 


17 

Perbibesiam,  Centauromachiam  et  Classiam  Unomammiam, 
Libyamque  oram  omnem,  omnem  Conterebromniam,  dimidiam 
partem  nationum  usque  omnium  subegit  solus  intra  viginti 
dies."  ^2  There  is  the  same  vagueness  and  greatness  in  the  list 
of  real  places,  heightened  and  turned  broadly  to  ridicule  in 
the  fictitious  names. 

Turning  to  literary  allusions  regardless  of  localization, 
one  finds  the  case  quite  similar.  Some  book-gathered  infor- 
mation is  involved  in  telling  the  story  the  author  has  made  the 
subject  of  his  poem,  and  here  Catullus  again,  as  in  the  case 
of  geographical  references  occasioned  by  the  narrative,  most 
shows  his  Alexandrianism,  if  such  references  are  to  be  called 
Alexandrian.  The  subject  matter  of  poems  64,  65  and  66  is 
responsible  for  most  of  the  references  to  literature  in  them, 
though  64  and  66  show  a  few  of  different  kinds. 

Lucretius  naturally  deems  it  necessary  to  the  exposition  of 
his  doctrine  to  name  and  refute  his  predecessors  in  the  realm 
of  natural  philosophy,  so  we  find  references  to  Heraclitus 
(I.  638),  Empedocles  (I.  716),  Anaxagoras  (I.  830),  one  to 
Ennius  prized  as  the  first  of  *  us '  who  sang,  who  brought  from 
lovely  Helicon  a  wreath  of  never-dying  leaves,  to  whom  the 
spirit  of  Homer  spoke  (I.  117).  So  Democritus  (HI,  371,  V. 
622)  is  quoted  to  be  refuted,  and  by  Bahylonica  Chaldaeum  doc- 
trina  (V.  727)  Berosus^^  is  meant.  Otherwise  the  nature  of 
Lucretius'  subject  calls  for  the  fruits  of  his  own  observation,  in- 
vestigation and  reasoning,  or  that  of  his  master,  which  he  makes 
his  own,  and  one  finds  no  more  learned  allusions,  except  those 
that  are  introduced  for  illustration  and  stylistic  purposes. 

In  Horace,  Book  I  of  the  Odes,  there  are  two  poems  with 
themes  so  chosen  that  the  underlying  story  is  presupposed 
(L  10,  15).  With  the  theme  once  chosen  the  references  are 
like  the  greater  number  in  Catullus  64,  65,  66 — details  of  the 
story  the  poet  is  telling. 

32  Quoted  by  Knapp,  op.  cit.,  p.  281. 
"  Merrill,  Lucretius,  ad  loc. 


18 

The  Georgics  have  the  same  sort  of  references  in  the  story 
of  Aristaeus  in  the  fourth  book,  with  all  its  ramifications 
touching  Cyrene  and  the  Ocean  nymphs,  Orpheus  and  Eury- 
dice.  Such  references  are  not  stylistic,  except  in  so  far  as  an 
author's  taste  runs  to  such  themes.  Again,  as  with  localizing 
allusions,  the  story  of  some  deity's  activities  is  used  to  name 
or  describe  that  deity,  as  Lucretius  uses  the  phrase  Aeneadum 
genetrix  in  his  opening  line,  or  as  Catullus  names  the  sun  in 
progenies  Thiae  (66.  44),  or  describes  the  Eumenides  (64.  193) 
as 

Eumenides,  quibus  anguino  redimita  capillo 
frons  expirantis  praeportat  pectoris  iras.^* 

So  Horace  frequently  designates  a  person:  in  I.  17.  22-3  where 
Bacchus  is  Semeleius  Thyoneus;  in  I.  19.  1-2  Venus  is  Mater 
saeva  Cupidinum,  and  Bacchus  is  Thebanae  Semeles  puer. 
Melpomene  in  I.  24.  4  is  the  daughter  of  Zeus,  to  whom  he 
gave  the  lyre  and  song  (Compare  Hesiod,  Theog.  52  ff.). 

Vergil  uses  this  means  of  identification  in  Georgics  1. 19,  where 
uncique  puer  monstrator  aratri  denotes  Triptolemus  and  refers 
to  the  story  of  his  invention  of  the  plough  and  instruction  of 
men  in  agriculture.  So  in  the  naming  of  the  stars  in  I.  138 
(claramque  Lycaonis  Arcton)  the  story  is  recalled  in  Lycaonis, 
as  in  the  Atlantides  of  Eoae  Atlantides  (I.  221),  the  Gnosia  of 
Gnosiaque  ardentis  decedat  stella  coronae  (I.  222),  the  Inoo  of 
Inoo  Melicertae  (I.  437)  and  in  Tithoni  of  Tithoni  croceum 
linquens  Aurora  cubile  (I.  447).  Again,  in  the  phrase  pastor 
ah  Amphryso  (III.  2)  a  story  of  mythology  is  recalled  by  a 
localizing  epithet,  but  these  are  the  only  cases  in  the  Georgics. 

In  a  poem  so  full  of  the  thought  of  the  imminence  of  God, 
in  which  the  country  itself  is  divine  (I.  168),  and  man  by  toil 
is  to  thrive  under  divine  guidance,  and  dare  not  go  about  his 

**  Compare  Aesch.,  Coeph.,  1049.  Paley  quotes  Paus.  I.  28,  6  Trpwroj  5^ 
ff<f>UTiv  AJirxiJXos  Sp6.Kovras  iirol-rfffev  ofwO  Ta?s  iv  ry  Ke<pa\fj  dpi^lv  thai-  roU 
5'  dyd\fia<7iv  oijre  tovtols  iiTi<TTiv  ovSiv  0o/3ep6v,  oUre  6aa  dWa  Keirai  Oewv 
tQv  vtroyalui'. 


19 

duties  without  first  worshipping  and  praying  (I.  338-50), 
in  which  the  phenomena  of  nature  are  elevated  to  the  rank  of 
divine  beings  and  made  to  sympathize  with  man  (I.  466 
ille  (sol)  etiam  exstindo  miseratus  Caesare  Romam)  and  guide 
him  constantly,  one  might  expect  more  direct  appeal  to  the 
deities,  and  more  occasion  for  mythological  reference,  but  the 
very  nearness  of  the  divine  to  the  simple  man  in  his  simple 
doings  makes  the  more  elaborate  appeals  unnecessary. 

No  opportunity  is  lost,  however,  for  the  association  of  the 
commonplace  with  the  divine.  Such  is  the  constant  identi- 
fication of  the  object  with  the  deity  who  presides  over  it, 
whereby  the  grain  is  Ceres,  the  vine  Bacchus,  and  the  wind 
that  visits  the  fields  is  a  personal  being  with  intent  of  good  or 
evil.  If  the  association  is  not  to  be  made  with  a  divine  being, 
then  Vergil  would  have  it  with  some  interesting  story  of 
mythology  or  history.  As  a  means  to  the  same  creation  of  an 
atmosphere  as  that  gained  by  the  constant  placing  of  his 
adjectives  before  his  nouns,^^  the  attaching  of  some  story 
to  the  description  of  the  simple  duties  of  a  farmer's  day,  or  to 
the  account  of  the  humble  implements  whereby  those  duties 
are  to  be  performed  gave  the  poet  the  power  of  dignifying 
and  making  interesting  things  which  from  their  simplicity  and 
frequency  are  apt  to  become  mechanical  and  colorless.  The 
number  of  times  that  Vergil  has  availed  himself  in  the  different 
parts  of  the  Georgics  of  this  means  of  occupying  the  mind  as 
well  as  the  hand  of  his  ploughman  points  likewise  to  his 
appreciation  of  its  usefulness.  In  the  first  book,  where  there 
is  much  talk  of  the  ground,  the  homely  crops  of  grain,  lupin  and 
bean,  the  fertilizing  of  fields,  the  use  of  the  plough,  ditching 
and  weeding,  he  shows  some  twenty-one  instances  of  an 
added  story,  told  or  suggested,  to  save  the  subject  matter  from 
the  barren  commonplace.  In  the  second  book,  where  the 
grove,   the  orchard  and  the  vine  are  in  themselves   more 

35  See  below,  pp.  29  ff. 


20 

beautiful  and  their  treatment  needs  less  adornment,  he  has 
only  half  as  many  cases,  while  to  lift  the  breeding  and  rearing 
of  cattle  to  the  sphere  of  poetry  in  Book  III  he  resorts  again 
to  some  twenty  stories  or  storied  references.  In  the  last 
book,  aside  from  the  myth  with  which  it  closes,  he  has  but  nine 
literary  references.  The  story  of  the  bees  becomes  a  sort  of 
microscopic  epic,  with  the  welfare  of  the  hive  for  hero,  as  later 
"si  parva  licet  componere  magnis,"  the  glory  of  Rome  is  the 
hero  of  the  Aeneid,  and  they  make  history  themselves  instead 
of  needing  references  to  history  to  give  them  interest. 

In  Lucretius,  where  to  enliven  didactic  material  one  might 
expect  frequent  use  of  literary  references,  there  are  found  in 
Books  I,  II,  III,  V  only  twenty-one  cases,^^  about  the  number 
Vergil  uses  in  the  first  book  alone.  In  I.  464  ff.  Lucretius 
used  Helen  and  the  Trojan  war  to  illustrate  his  theory  of  the 
nature  of  '  accidents '  and  time.  Some  of  his  predecessors  have 
spoken  more  truly  than  the  Pythia  from  the  tripod  and  laurel 
of  Phoebus  (I.  739),  which  echoes  the  many  references  in 
previous  literature  to  the  garlands  of  bay  surrounding  the 
priestess.  It  is  wdth  stinging  thyrsus  that  the  great  hope  of 
praise  has  struck  his  heart  (I.  922).  Phoebeaque  daedala 
chordis  carmina  (II.  505)  may  suggest  the  story  of  Mercury's 
gift  of  the  lyre  to  Apollo,  but  it  is  hardly  more  than  a  hint. 
So  there  is  reference  for  illustration  to  the  Chimaera  (II.  705). 
Man  grieves  not  over  what  happened  before  his  day,  as  when 
the  Carthaginians  came  for  their  mighty  conflict  (II.  833  ff.). 
Tantalus,  Tityos,  Sisyphus  are  but  mythical  figures  corre- 
sponding to  states  on  earth  (III.  981  fT,).  Lumina  sis  oculis 
etiam  bonus  Ancu  reliquit  (III.  1025)  echoes  Ennius,  and  the 
next  verse,  the  thought  of  the  Iliad,  XXI.  107  (Munro,  ad  loc.) ; 
then  come  Xerxes,  Scipio,  Homer,  Democritus  and  Epicurus 
himself,  the  great  of  the  earth  gone  down  in  death   (III. 

s«I.  464-5.  739,  922-3;  II.  505,  705;  III.  833,  981  flF.,  1011,  1025,  1029, 
1034,  1037,  1039,  1042;  V.  22  ff.,  35.  112,  326,  397,  878,  1303. 


21 


1025-42).  Hercules  with  the  service  of  his  labors  (V.  22  ff.) 
to  mankind  is  not  to  be  compared  with  Epicurus.  Again,  the 
truth  is  greater  than  that  uttered  by  the  Pythia  from  the 
tripod  and  Phoebus'  laurel  (V.  112).  The  poet  sang  of  the 
war  at  Thebes  and  at  Troy  (V.  326),  and  Greek  poets  of  old 
sang  of  how  Phaethon  was  carried  astray  by  the  horses  of 
the  sun  and  cast  to  earth  by  Jove  (V.  397).  Centaurs  are 
mentioned  but  to  be  denied  (V.  878),  and  again,  as  in  III.  833 
war  is  the  struggle  with  the  Carthaginians  (V.  1303).  The 
references  are  few,  simple  and  broad,  to  stories  or  facts  gener- 
ally known.  The  reader's  mind  is  never  drawn  aside  from  the 
point  illustrated  by  the  illustration. 

The  use  of  such  references  in  Catullus  and  Horace  is  more 
like  Vergil's  own,  though  those  of  Catullus  are  simple  and 
not  so  frequent.  There  is  the  story  of  Atalanta  in  the  unsatis- 
fying close  of  the  second  poem  and  a  reference  to  the  wealth  of 
Midas  (24.  4);  wine  k  Thyonianus  (27.  7);  Memmius  and 
Piso  are  opprohria  Romuli  Remique  (28.  15).  Sadder  than  the 
tears  of  Simonides  should  be  the  lines  sent  by  Cornificius 
(38.  8).  In  58b  speed  is  denoted  by  some  five  persons  noted 
for  it,  a  passage  similar  to  the  geographical  references  quoted 
from  the  eleventh  poem  (page  6,  above).  In  74.  4  Harpo- 
crates  represents  silence,  and  again  in  102.  4.  The  Epyllion 
shows  Syrtis,  Scylla  and  Charybdis  as  monsters  who  might 
have  given  Theseus  birth  (64.  156) ;  Athens  is  portus  Erechtheus 
in  211  and  sedes  Erechthei  in  229,  while  the  poplar  is  designated 
by  lentaque  sorore  flavimati  Phaethontis  in  290-1.  In  poem  66 
bonumf  acinus  (27)  is  the  slaying  of  Demetrius  of  Macedonia  by 
Berenice;  Xerxes  is  the  Barbara  inventus  (45)  who  cut  a  way 
through  Athos  for  his  fleet;  and  hidden  in  the  uncertain  verses 
52-4  is  some  story  of  Memnon's  brother  Emathion  identified 
with  the  ostrich,  or  an  equally  recondite  allusion.  Horace  is 
fond  of  references  to  a  story,  and  the  first  book  of  the  Odes 
shows  some  thirty  cases.     Often  the  reference  is  in  just  one 


22 

suggestive  name,  as  in  1.  \2  Attalicis  condicionihus ,  6.  2  Maeonii 
carminis,  6.  6-8  graveni  Pelidae  stomachum,  cursus  duplicis 
Ulixei  saevam  Pelopis  domum,  16.  17  irae  Thyesten  .  .  .  stravere, 
18.  8  Centaurea  cum  Lapithis  rixa,  24.  13  Threicio  hlandius 
Orpheo,  27.  19  Quanta  laborabas  Charybdi,  29.  14  libros  Panaeti 
Socraticam  et  dovium,  32.  5  Lesbio  civi.  In  other  cases  the 
story  is  outHned  briefly,  or  at  least  some  particulars  are 
given,^^ 

In  the  Georgics  the  story  attaches  to  all  sorts  of  objects. 
The  myrtle  with  which  Caesar's  brows  are  to  be  bound  in  his 
immortality  is  materna,  by  which  Vergil  gives  in  one  simple 
adjective  the  story  of  the  divine  source  of  the  Julian  line 
(I.  28).  The  time  when  Nature  decreed  fixed  laws  for  definite 
regions  was  when  Deucalion  cast  the  stones  to  earth  from 
which  the  durum  genus  was  born  (I.  62).  The  poppy  that 
exhausts  the  field's  fertility  is  the  same  that  is  drenched  with 
Lethe's  sleep  of  forgetfulness  (I.  78).  The  farmer  must  have 
the  implements  of  his  work,  the  slow-moving  wains  of  the 
Eleusinian  Mother  and  the  simple  equipment  that  she 
gave  to  King  Celeus  when  she  tarried  in  his  country  and 
taught  men  agriculture;  and  his  winnowing  fan  is  the  fan  of 
lacchus  in  the  mysteries  (I.  163-6).  Such  implements  must 
be  handled  with  a  new  reverence. 

The  unlucky  days  of  the  month  are  so  because  they  are  the 
birthdays  of  Orcus,  the  Eumenides,  and  the  Giants  whom 
Jove  hurled  down  with  his  bolt.  Fair  weather  is  foretold  by 
the  flight  of  the  hawk  and  the  ciris,  and  both  story  and  com- 
position are  elaborated  (I.  404-9) .  So  Aetna's  eruption  entails 
the  story  of  the  Cyclops  (I.  471),  and  Rome  paid  the  penalty 
for  Troy  built  under  the  cheating  Laomedon  (I.  502).  The 
poplar  is  the  shade  tree  of  Heracles'  crown  (II.  66) ;  apples  are 
Alcinoi  silvae  (II.  87).     The  reference  to  Italy's  great  sons, 

"  Compare  2.  6,  7,  17;  3.  27-36;  4.  5-8;  6.  13-16;  7.  21  £f.;  8.  14;  12.  7  ff., 
19  ff.;  16.  5  ff.,  13  ff.,  17;  17.  16-20;  24.  18;  27.  24;  28.  7-10,  20. 


23 

the  Decii,  Marii,  Camilli,  the  Scipios  (II.  169-70)  involves  a 
knowledge  of  Roman  history,  and  Italy  herself  is  Saturnia  tellus 
(II.  173).  The  goats  must  be  kept  from  the  young  vines 
because  of  the  poison  in  their  bite,  and  for  this  very  reason  the 
goat  is  sacrificed  to  Bacchus,  whereupon  there  follows  a 
description  of  the  celebrations  at  the  Greek  and  at  the  Italian 
festivals  in  his  honor  (II.  380-96).  The  Italians  themselves 
are  called  Ausonii  Troia  gens  missa  coloni,  to  enlarge  the  story 
still  more.  There  are  blessings  from  Bacchus,  and  blame 
to  be  laid  at  his  door  as  well,  for  it  was  he  who  brought  death 
upon  the  Centaurs  in  their  conflict  with  the  Lapiths  (II.  456- 
7).  So,  when  Vergil  is  paying  tribute  to  Lucretius  and  con- 
trasting himself,  he  makes  a  reference  to  a  theory  which 
Cicero  traces  to  Empedocles  (Tusc.  1.  9:  Empedocles  animum 
esse  censet  cordi  suffusum  sanguinem),  though  the  notion  of 
the  heart  as  the  seat  of  the  intellect  was  common  among  the 
Romans  whether  they  knew  Empedocles  or  not.^^ 

In  announcing  his  subject  at  the  opening  of  the  third  book, 
Vergil  cites  epic  themes  that  are  outworn,  Eurystheus,  Busiris, 
Hylas,  Latonia  Delos,  Hippodame  and  Pelops,  and  then  in 
epic  strain  tells  of  the  great  temple  of  song  he  will  rear  to 
Caesar's  glory  later.  In  this  passage  naturally  there  is  much 
story.  The  references  to  the  Greek  games,  by  which  Vergil 
brings  his  horses  in  touch  with  Pindar's  famous  mules,  are 
begun  here  (II.  19);  all  Greece  will  forsake  the  Alpheus 
and  the  groves  of  the  poor  shepherd  Molorchus,  by  whose 
hospitality  Heracles  is  refreshed,  to  yield  him  the  victory. 
Then  follow  Caesar's  triumphs  that  are  to  be  represented  on 
the  temple,  conquered  nations  by  the  Ganges  and  the  Nile, 
Parthians  and  the  cities  of  Asia,  Morini  and  Dalmatians,  and 
the  glory  of  Caesar's  line  no  less  than  his  own,  figures  of 

58  Compare  Cic.  Tusc.  I.  9.  18  Aliis  cor  ipsum  animus  videtur,  ex  quo 
excordes,  vaecordes,  concordesque  dicuntur  et  Nasica  ille  prudens  bis  consul 
Corculum  et  egregie  cordatus  homo,  catus  Aelius  Sextus.  Compare  also  such 
phrases  as  sapere  corde,  Plant.  Mil.  2.  3.  65.  Lucr.  I.  737,  V.  1107. 


24 

Assaracus  and  the  Jove-descended  race,  and  of  Troy's  builder, 
Cynthius  (III.  26-36). 

From  these  things  Cithaeron  and  Epidaurus  call  him 
(III.  44),  and  he  turns  to  his  more  immediate  task  of  breeding 
horses  to  win  the  prizes  at  Olympia  (III.  49).  The  war  horse 
is  like  Cyllarus  who  was  obedient  to  Pollux'  reins,  or  the 
horses  of  Mars  and  Achilles  (III.  90-1)  mentioned  in  the 
Iliad  (XV.  119,  XVI.  148),  or  like  the  spirited  steed  into 
which  Saturn  turned  himself  and  filled  Pelion  with  his  neighing 
(III.  92-94).  Then  follows  a  description  of  the  race,  and 
how  Erichthonius  first  yoked  to  his  chariot  four  horses,  and 
the  Lapiths  taught  fighting  on  horseback  (III.  113-5).  The 
horse  sprung  from  Neptune  himself  will  not  serve  if  he  be  not 
young  (III.  122);  one  must  protect  the  herds  from  the  gad- 
fly which  Juno  made  to  torment  Inachus'  child  (III.  153);  the 
spotted  lynxes  even  in  their  wild  state  belong  to  Bacchus  with 
the  associations  of  the  East  (III.  264),  and  the  madness  of 
the  mares  is  Venus-sent,  since  the  time  when  Glaucus'  horses 
tore  him  and  ate  his  flesh  in  frenzy  (III.  267).  If  one  prizes 
fleece,  let  his  rams  be  white,  as  white  as  the  fleece  Pan  donned 
to  attract  Luna  (III.  391-3),  as  Nicander  told  (Servius  ad 
loc).  When  the  plague  had  fallen  upon  the  beasts,  oxen  were 
sought  in  vain  for  Juno's  rites,  and  the  cars  were  drawn  by 
buffaloes  ill-matched  (III.  533),  though  Herodotus  says  the 
priestess'  sons  drew  the  car  (I.  31).  The  story  in  the  verse 
Phillyrides  Chiron  Amythaoniusque  Melampus  (III.  550)  is 
only  secondary,  for  the  imposing  sound  of  the  names  would 
make  one  despair  of  finding  a  remedy  when  such  men  had 
failed.  Tisiphone  as  the  death  goddess  of  the  plague  borne 
along  by  Fear  and  Disease  thrusts  up  her  greedy  face  higher 
day  by  day  (III.  552-3),  and  so  the  death  of  the  dumb  beasts 
is  dignified  by  this  goddess  embodiment  of  terror. 

There  is  less  of  the  story  attached  to  ordinary  objects  in 
the  fourth  book,  but  here  the  birds  are  not  to  come  near  the 


25 

bee  hives,  not  even  Procne  staining  her  breast  with  bloody 
hands  (IV.  15).  The  old  Corycian,  whose  charming  garden 
Vergil  saw,  is  dignified  by  the  ancient  greatness  of  his  town, 
founded  by  Spartans  of  the  race  of  King  Oebalus  (IV.  125). 
Jupiter  gave  the  bees  their  praiseworthy  customs,  and  gave 
them  in  gratitude  for  their  feeding  him  in  the  cave  of  Dicte 
when  they  followed  the  songs  and  cymbals  of  the  Curetes 
(IV.  1 50-2) .  The  bees  work  as  the  Cyclopes  do  beneath  Aetna 
(IV.  17  ff.),  but  their  dwellings  are  no  more  free  from  pests 
than  was  man's  granary,  and  Minerva's  spider  Arachne 
builds  her  web  across  their  doors  (IV.  246-7).  Within  the 
story  of  Orpheus,  among  those  weeping  for  Eurydice  is 
Thrace,  the  land  of  Rhesus  (though  he  was  king  after  Orpheus' 
day)  (IV.  462) ;  the  Hebrus,  down  which  Orpheus'  head  was 
rolled,  is  the  stream  his  father  Oeagrus  beheld  (IV.  524). 
The  home  wherein  Vergil  learnt  the  charm  upon  which  his 
fame  was  to  rest  was  named  for  a  Siren,  Parthenope  (IV.  564). 


II 

Word  Order 

Word  order  is  a  potent  factor  in  the  production  of  stylistic 
effect.  All  sorts  of  shades  of  meaning  and  emotion  are 
possible  from  the  different  arrangements  of  the  words  in  a 
sentence,  and  much  of  an  author's  power  is  discernible  through 
a  study  of  the  relative  positions  of  his  w^ords.  The  position 
of  adjective  and  noun,  with  regard  to  each  other  and  with 
regard  to  their  place  in  the  verse,  that  of  verbs,  especially 
with  regard  to  the  verse,  the  carrying  over  of  words  or  phrases 
from  one  verse  to  another  for  special  effect,  the  placing  of 
words  side  by  side  according  to  the  principles  of  likeness  or 
contrast,  all  point  to  conscious  elaboration  of  word  order 
that  throws  light  upon  the  author's  artistic  creed. 

In  general,  as  regards  the  position  of  noun  and  adjective, 
the  first  place  falls  to  the  adjective,  in  prose  as  well  as  in 
poetry.  In  Cicero's  fourth  Philippic  the  ratio  is  93  :  59,  and 
in  Livy  I.  1-7,  136  :  73.  This  order  is  discussed  by  Herbert 
Spencer  in  his  essay  on  style.^^  "  Ought  we  to  say  with  the 
French — un  cheval  noir;  or  to  say  as  we  do — a  black  horse? 
Probably,  most  persons  of  culture  will  say  that  one  order  is  as 
good  as  the  other.  Alive  to  the  bias  produced  by  habit,  they 
will  ascribe  to  that  the  preference  they  feel  for  our  own  form 
of  expression.  They  will  expect  those  educated  in  the  use 
of  the  opposite  form  to  have  an  equal  preference  for  that. 
And  thus  they  will  conclude  that  neither  of  these  instinctive 
judgments  is  of  any  worth.  There  is,  however,  a  psychological 
ground  for  deciding  in  favor  of  the  English  custom.  If  "a 
horse  black"  be  the  arrangement,  then  immediately  on  the 

"  Herbert  Spencer,  Philosophy  of  Style,  p.  16. 


27 

utterance  of  the  word  "horse,"  there  arises,  or  tends  to  arise, 
in  the  mind,  an  idea  answering  to  that  word;  and  as  there  has 
been  nothing  to  indicate  what  kind  of  horse,  any  image  of  a 
horse  suggests  itself.  Very  Hkely,  however,  the  image  will 
be  that  of  a  brown  horse:  brown  horses  being  the  most  familiar. 
The  result  is  that  when  the  word  "black"  is  added,  a  check 
is  given  to  the  process  of  thought.  Either  the  picture  of  a 
brown  horse  already  present  to  the  imagination  has  to  be 
suppressed,  and  the  picture  of  a  black  one  summoned  in  its 
place;  or  else,  if  the  picture  of  a  brown  horse  be  yet  unformed, 
the  tendency  to  form  it  has  to  be  stopped.  Whichever  is  the 
case,  some  hindrance  results.  But  if,  on  the  other  hand, 
"a  black  horse"  be  the  expression  used,  no  mistake  can  be 
made.  The  word  "black,"  indicating  an  abstract  quality, 
arouses  no  definite  idea.  It  simply  prepares  the  mind  for 
conceiving  some  object  of  that  color;  and  the  attention  is  kept 
suspended  until  that  object  is  known.  If,  then,  by  precedence 
of  the  adjective,  the  idea  is  always  conveyed  rightly,  whereas 
precedence  of  the  substantive  is  apt  to  produce  a  miscon- 
ception; it  follows  that  the  one  gives  the  mind  less  trouble  than 
the  other,  and  is  therefore  more  forcible." 

Norden  notes  the  same  tendency  for  the  hexameter  of  the 
Aeneid.''°  When  the  two  bound  a  verse,  or  when  they  occur 
in  interlocked  order,  Norden  observes  that  the  adjective  pre- 
cedes in  an  overwhelming  number  of  cases,  and  attributes  the 
position  to  care  that  the  verse  should  not  fall  away  too  much 
at  the  end.  To  compensate  for  the  falling  rhythm  the  weight 
of  the  idea,  he  argues,  should  occupy  this  part  of  the  verse, 
and  under  normal  circumstances  the  substantive  contains  the 
weight.  The  same  arrangement  holds  true  when  the  noun 
and  attribute  are  separated  by  the  verse-end,  and  Norden 
attributes  this  to  the  fact  that  the  substantive  bears  the 
main  idea;  did  this  occur  in  the  preceding  verse,  there  would 

"  Norden,  Comm.  to  Aen.  VI.,  Anhang  III.  pp.  382-391. 


28 

be  nothing,  he  maintains,  to  make  the  reader  expect  a  qualifying 
attribute  to  follow.  Cases  of  the  reversal  of  the  position  may 
all,  according  to  him,  be  referred  to  a  desire  for  a  specific 
effect,  and  they  occur  generally  when  the  attribute  and  not 
the  substantive  contains  the  important  idea. 

From  Norden's  viewpoint— the  proper  balancing  of  the  verse 
as  regards  rhythm  and  content— the  position  of  the  sub- 
stantive and  attribute  becomes  almost  a  mechanical  fixity  of 
the  rhythmical  structure.  In  the  case  of  the  two  separated 
by  the  verse-end,  however,  he  does  bring  forward  the  principle 
that  is  made  the  basis  of  the  position  by  Spencer.  According 
to  him  economy  of  the  reader's  mental  energy  is  the  reason 
why  the  position  of  the  adjective  before  the  noun  is  the  most 
reasonable  and  effective.  The  substantive,  though  it  be 
general,  is  conceived  as  a  particular,  and  if  its  qualification  is 
not  indicated  to  the  mind  before  the  concept  is  formed,  there 
will  in  the  great  majority  of  cases  have  to  be  a  readjustment 
of  concept,  and  so  a  waste  of  mental  energy.  By  the  pre- 
cedence of  the  adjective  the  idea  is  conveyed  "without  liability 
to  error  .  .  .  ,  gives  the  mind  less  trouble  and  is  therefore 
more  forcible." 

The  attribute  preceding  the  substantive  is  one  phase  of  the 
so-called  ascending  order,  which  Henri  Weil  thinks  tends  in 
general  to  unity  of  thought  expression,  while  the  descending 
order  tends  to  analysis  and  particularity .«  He  thinks  there 
is  closer  thought  connection  between  the  substantive  and  its 
modifier  when  the  latter  precedes  than  when  it  follows,  and 
in  commending  the  French  language  for  its  elasticity  of  usage, 
despite  its  avowed  preference  for  the  descending  construction, 
he  notes  that  poetic  epithets  and  those  that  are  addressed 
chiefly  to  the  imagination  are  usually  placed  before  the 
substantive.""    This  observation  in  the  case  of  the  French 

"  Henri  Weil,  Order  of  Words  in  the  Ancient  Languages  Compared  with  the 
Modern.     Translated  by  C.  W.  Super. 
«  Weil,  op.  cit.,  p.  61. 


29 

language,  where  the  choice  of  ascending  or  descending  con- 
struction is  not  so  free,  yet  furnishes  a  basis  of  distinction 
between  the  two  positions  that  may  hold  true  for  Latin,  where 
the  choice  is  much  freer,  a  distinction  plainly  discernible 
in  the  Georgics  as  a  whole. 

Norden's  explanation  of  the  position  does  not  go  deep 
enough.  The  relation  between  the  two  words  involved  is  one 
of  thought  rather  than  an  artificial  compensating  for  the 
falling  rhythm  of  the  dactylic  hexameter.  In  the  iambic 
verse  of  Horace's  Epodes,  where  there  is  no  falling  rhythm, 
the  same  arrangement  of  the  adjective  and  noun  is  noted, 
the  ratio  being  330  :  137  in  448  verses,  about  2^  :  1-  The 
iambic  verse  of  Catullus  shows  the  same  arrangement,  though 
the  proportion  is  less,  117  :  66  in  181  verses,  a  little  less  than 
2:1.  This  agrees  very  closely  with  the  proportion  in  500 
verses  of  Ovid's  Metamorphoses  III,  the  ratio  being  362  :  196, 
while  Aeneid  II,  written  in  descending  rhythm,  as  are  the 
Metamorphoses,  shows  678  :  342,  a  little  less  than  2  :  1  again. 
In  view  of  Horace's  use  in  ascending  iambic  rhythm,  which 
excedes  that  of  the  Metamorphoses  or  of  the  Aeneid,  the  theory 
of  compensation  for  falHng  dactyhc  rhythm  seems  quite  inade- 
quate. Spencer's  view  gives  the  psychological  basis  for  Weil's 
observations,  although  Spencer  emphasizes  the  advisability 
of  the  ascending  construction  between  modifier  and  substan- 
tive for  all  cases.  Growing  out  of  the  quality-concept  theory 
of  Spencer,  and,  in  the  Georgics  especially,  agreeing  with  the 
observation  of  Weil,  is  the  effect  of  creating  for  the  nouns,  so 
many  of  which  in  this  poem  are  homely  and  unpoetic  words, 
an  atmosphere  of  color,  sound,  beauty,  happiness  so  appropri- 
ate that  it  takes  into  itself  as  its  proper  support  the  homely 
substantive  when  it  comes,  and  has  already  invested  it  with  a 
charm  which  it  might  be  difficult  to  add  once  it  had  come 
forward  in  its  prosaic  aspect.  If  it  was  Vergil's  purpose  in 
the  Georgics  not  so  much  to  write  a  practical  manual  for 


so 

farmers,  as  to  invest  the  time-honored  work  of  the  farmer  with 
all  the  charm  and  interest  that  could  be  brought  to  bear  upon 
it,  to  sing  the  poetry  of  the  simplest  activities  of  daily  life^ 
in  an  occupation  being  steadily  more  and  more  disregarded  by 
his  countrymen,  such  a  means  toward  elevating  his  subject  to 
the  sphere  of  poetry  as  this  creation  of  an  atmosphere  by  the 
arrangement  of  his  words  could  hardly  have  failed  to  be 
evolved,  had  not  the  exegencies  of  his  meter  and  the  proper 
formation  of  concepts  and  close  connection  of  thought  already 
assured  it  to  him. 

A  passage  illustrating  the  effect  of  this  arrangement  is 
G.  III.  286ff.: 

superat  pars  altera  curae, 
lanigeros  agitare  greges  hirtasque  capellas. 
hie  labor,  hinc  laudem  fortes  sperate  coloni. 
nee  sum  animi  dubius  verbis  ea  vincere  magnum 
quam  sit  et  angustis  hunc  addere  rebus  honorem. 

He  knew  his  task  was  difficult,  but  even  in  this  partial  index 
he  relied  on  a  trusted  means  of  securing  charm,  and  thought  it 
worth  while  to  present  the  soft  white  of  lanigeros  and  the 
picturesque  shagginess  of  hirtas  to  the  reader's  mind  before 
he  showed  the  sheep  and  goats,  while  the  simple  farmers  must 
be  fortes,  raised  at  once  to  a  dignity  often  not  seen  in  their 
calling.  The  passage  III.  322-38  shows  the  same  means  for 
the  creation  of  an  atmosphere. 

at  vero  zephyris  cum  laeta  vocantibua  aestas 

in  saltus  utrumque  gregem  atque  in  pascua  mittet, 

Luciferi  primo  cum  sidere  frigida  rura 

carpamus,  dum  mane  novum,  dum  gramina  canent 

et  ros  in  tenera  pecori  gratissimus  herba. 

«  Walter  Pater  speaks  of  the  same  qualities  of  charm  and  interest  inherent 
in  ordinary  things  being  recovered  for  Marius  (Marius,  the  Epicurean,  p.  17) 
"And  those  simple  gifts,  like  other  objects  as  trivial — bread,  oil,  wine,  and 
milk — had  regained  for  him,  by  their  use  in  such  religious  service,  that  poetic 
and  as  it  were,  moral  significance,  which  surely  belongs  to  all  the  means  of  our 
daily  life,  could  we  but  break  through  the  veil  of  our  familiarity  with  things  by 
no  means  vulgar  in  themselves." 


31 


inde  ubi  quarta  sitim  caeli  collegerit  hora 
et  cantu  querulae  rumpunt  arbusta  cicadae, 
ad  puteos  aut  alta  greges  ad  stagna  iubebo 
currentem  ilignis  potare  canalibus  undam; 
aestibus  at  mediis  umbrosam  exquirere  vallem, 
eicubi  magna  lovis  antique  robore  quercus 
ingentis  tendat  ramos,  aut  sicubi  nigrum 
ilicibus  crebris  sacra  nemus  accubet  umbra; 
turn  tenuis  dare  rursus  aquas  et  pascere  rursua 
solis  ad  occasum,  cum  frigidus  aera  vesper 
temperat,  et  saltus  reficit  iam  roscida  luna, 
litoraque  alcyonen  resonant,  acalanthida  dumi. 

If  the  goatherd  thought  of  his  duties  on  a  summer  day  as 
Vergil  has  depicted  them  here,  he  was  a  blessed  co-heir  of  an 
almost  perfect  universe.  Throughout  the  passage  the  adjec- 
tives precede  the  nouns,  except  in  the  phrases  ros  gratissimus, 
where  the  adjective  in  close  junction  with  pecori  indicates  a 
charm  in  addition  to  that  of  ros;  aestibus  mediis,  where  the 
functions  of  noun  and  adjective  as  regards  the  general  and 
the  specific  are  reversed  (the  adjective  particularizing  the 
general  concept  in  aestibus);  and  ilicibus  crebris,  for  the 
arrangement  of  which  there  seems  to  be  no  stylistic  cause, 
unless  it  be  variety.  In  the  first  book  the  plough-share  is 
polished  in  the  furrow  until  it  flashes  in  the  light  (I.  46  attritus 
splendescere  vomer).  So  there  is  a  hugeness  of  the  harvest 
before  it  comes  (I.  49  immensae  messes),  and  there  is  mystery 
in  the  unbroken  ground  {ignotum  aequor)  and  fickleness  in  the 
heaven's  way  {varium  morem),  and  an  assurance  gained  by 
our  fathers  in  the  cultivation  of  a  plot  (patrios  cultus).  In- 
stances could  be  multiplied,  for  there  are  almost  three  times 
as  many  adjectives  preceding  their  nouns  in  the  first  book  of 
the  Georgics  as  there  are  following  them  (472  :  166).  Such  a 
large  proportion,  as  compared  with  the  ratio  noted  in  Cicero 
and  Livy,  would  point  to  some  underlying  cause,  not  to  be 
found  in  Norden's  assumption  of  the  need  of  weight  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  hexameter,  but  more  probably  in  the  advan- 
tage of  going  from  a  less  to  a  more  specific  idea,  and  the  height- 


32 

ening  of  picturesqueness,  which  we  discover  in  the  poem, 
whether  it  be  conscious  or  not.  The  smaller  proportion  in 
Ovid's  Metamorphoses  and  in  Aeneid  II — where  the  incidents 
themselves  are  more  lively  and  poetic — points  likewise  to 
Vergil's  appreciation  of  this  means  of  compensating  for 
unpoetic  material. 

This  relative  position  is  also  true  when  the  adjective  and 
substantive  are  put  at  the  beginning  and  the  close  of  a  verse. 
In  the  Georgics  there  are  only  four  cases  of  this  kind  where 
the  adjective  follows  (II.  74,  III.  83,  IV.  15,  91),  and  one  of 
these  shows  interlocked  order  with  another  pair. 

The  opening  and  closing  of  a  verse  with  attribute  and 
substantive  occurs  frequently  enough  for  one  to  infer  that 
Vergil  was  conscious  of  its  power  to  bind  a  verse  together 
and  give  prominence  to  the  words  so  placed,  but  the  number  of 
verses  so  arranged^  is  not  large  enough  to  warrant  calling  the 
usage  a  mannerism.  Of  the  verses  noted  almost  half  in  each 
book  are  cases  where  another  noun  and  attribute  are  included 
between  the  opening  and  closing  pair,  and  here  the  arrange- 
ment has  the  adjective  now  preceding,  now  following,  the 
preference  being  still  given  to  the  former  position.  There  are 
lines  like  I.  66 

pulverulenta  coquat  maturis  solibus  aestas, 
or  like  I.  81, 

efifetos  cinerem  immundum  iactare  per  agros, 
four  of  each  in  the  first  book,  while  the  second  shows  ten 
of  the  first  type  to  one  of  the  second,  the  third,  seven  to  one, 
and  the  fourth,  eight  to  four.  In  some  cases  other  principles 
are  involved  in  the  placing,  as,  for  example,  in  I.  66,  quoted 
above.     Verse  65  reads 

fortes  invertant  tauri,  glaebasque  iacentis 
and  the  drawing  of  pulverulenta  to  the  opening  of  the  following 

«  In  Book  I.  21;  in  II.  22;  in  III.  15;  in  IV,  24. 


33 

verse  makes  it  do  duty  as  qualifying  glaebas  even  more  than 
aestas  in  sense.  The  heat  is  to  cook  the  clods  until  they 
crumble  to  dust.     I.  224, 

invitae  properes  anni  spem  credere  terrae, 
may  quite  as  well  owe  its  arrangement  to  the  idea  of  contrast 
in  the  juxtaposition  of  invitae  and  properes  as  to  the  separation 
of  noun  and  attribute  at  the  verse  ends.     I.  510, 

vicinae  ruptis  inter  se  legibus  urbes, 

is  open  to  the  same  influence,  as  is  III.  153, 

Inachiae  luno  pestem  meditata  iuvencae. 
IV.  438  vix  defessa  senem  passus  componere  membra 

shows  defessa  and  senem  side  by  side,  with  heightened  effect 
from  the  principle  of  likeness  rather  than  contrast. 

There  are  many  verses  in  the  Georgics  containing  two 
substantives  and  two  attributes,  and  the  arrangements  of  the 
four  words  vary  much.  This  use  of  pairs  of  words  is  but  the 
appearance  in  verse  of  the  same  tendency  seen  in  prose  that 
gives  the  second  noun  an  attribute  because  the  first  has  one. 
It  belongs  to  the  cultivation  of  balance,  begun  as  early  as 
Gorgias  in  the  study  of  artistic  prose  discourse.^^  Cicero's 
prose  is  full  of  it,"*^  and  the  placing  of  the  adjective  sometimes 
produces  as  marked  rhetorical  effect  as  is  to  be  found  in  poetry. 
Norden  quotes^'^  Cat.  1.  1  cum  ilium  ex  occultis  insidiis  in 
apertum  latrocinium  coniecimus;  Att.  7.  3  vetere  instituto 
vitae  effugit  nova  pericula.     Add  to  these  Pro  Sestio,  2.  5  .  .  . 

*^  Octave  Navarre,  Essai  sur  la  rhStorique  grecque  avant  Aristote,  pp.  92- 
111,  traces  the  use  of  metaphors,  figures  of  harmony,  word  order,  and  repetition, 
the  innovations  that  Gorgias  brought  into  prose  from  poetry,  employed  to  a 
small  extent  in  Aeschylus  and  more  in  Sophocles.  Norden  attributes  the  usage 
in  Latin  poetry  to  the  influence  of  rhetorical  prose  (Comm.  to  Aen.  VI.  Anhang 
III.  p.  386.  Fridericus  Caspari,  however,  De  ratione  quae  inter  Vergilium 
et  Lucanum  intercedat  quaestiones  selectae,  p.  88,  refers  it  to  Alexandrian 
poetry.     See  also  Norden,  Kunstprosa,  pp.  16,  75  ff. 

«  Norden,  Comm.  to  Aen.  VI.  Anhang  III.  pp.  386-7. 

*''  Norden,  Comm.  to  Aen.  VI.  Anhang  III.  p.  387. 


34 

priusquam  docuero  quibus  initiis  ac  fundamentis  haec  tantae 
summis  in  rebus  laudes  excitatae  sunt;  3.  8  ut  et  illi  quaestor 
bonus  omnibus  optimus  civis  videretur;  7.  15  et  multorum 
timore  intentus  est  arcus  in  me  unum. 

In  the  Georgics  there  have  been  noted  the  verses  in  which 
the  two  adjectives  occur  first,  separated  by  some  word  or 
words  from  the  two  nouns  to  follow.  There  are  many  of  this 
type:^^  compare,  for  example, 

III.  514  discissos  nudis  laniabant  dentibus  artus 

III.  178  sed  tota  in  dulcis  consument  ubera  natos 

I.  361  cum  medio  celeres  revolant  ex  aequore  mergi 

IV.  417  dulcis  compositis  spLravit  crinibus  aura  .  .  . 

Modifications  of  this  arrangement  occur,  where  the  adjectives 
still  precede  but  no  verb  occurs,  or  where  one  noun  precedes 
the  verb,  or  where  one  adjective  follows,  etc.,  as  in  the  following 
instances: 

I.  291  et  quidam  seros  hiberni  ad  luminis  ignis 

I.  265  atque  Amerina  parant  lentae  retinacula  viti 

IV.  468  et  caligantem  nigra  formidine  lucum 

IV.  488  cum  subita  incautum  dementia  cepit  amantem. 

Such  an  arrangement,  in  which  both  adjectives  come  before 
both  nouns,  is  b}-  far  the  most  common  for  a  verse  containing 
two  pairs  of  substantives  and  attributes,  except  for  the 
arrangement  in  which  the  adjective  and  the  noun  belonging 
together  both  occur  before  the  other  pair  is  introduced. 
Even  here  the  two  classes  approach  each  other  very  closely 
numerically.  In  Book  I  the  number  of  cases  of  the  two 
types  is  the  same,  in  IV  there  are  three  more  of  the  former 
type  (57  :  54) ;  in  II  and  III  the  ratio  is  43  :  65  and  42  :  60. 

The  reverse  of  this  arrangement,  two  nouns  followed  by 
two  adjectives,  is  very  rare,  occurring  in  all  four  books  of 
the  Georgics  only  twenty-two  times.  There  is  the  "Golden" 
type,  as,  II.  387 

oraque  corticibus  sumunt  horrenda  cavatis 

«  In  Bk.  I,  47;  Bk.  II.  43;  Bk.  III.  42;  Bk.  IV.  57. 


35 

or  HI.  386  ,,.^      ,^ 

continuoque  greges  villis  lege  moUibus  albos, 

and  a  variety   of   arrangements  not  strictly   "Golden,"   as, 

II  527 

ipse  dies  agitat  festos  fususque  per  herbam 

or  11.  461, 

si  non  ingentem  foribus  domus  alta  superbis 

or  II.  40, 

0  decus,  o  f  amae  merito  pars  maxima  nostrae 

or  I.  476-7, 

vox  quoque  per  lucos  vulgo  exaudita  silentis 

ingens,  et  simulacra  modis  pallentia  miris. 
With  as  definite  an  artistic  purpose  behind  it  is  the  verse 
that  shows  the  interlocked  order  of  the  pairs,  where  the 
adjective  of  one  group  and  the  noun  of  the  other  precede,  or 
vice  versa.     Examples  are : 

I.  467  cum  caput  obscura  nitidum  ferrugine  texit 

II  31  truditur  e  sicco  radix  oleagina  ligno. 

II".  89  non  eadem  arboribus  pendet  vindemia  nostris 

III.  254  flumina  correptosque  unda  torquentia  montis 
IV  34  seu  lento  fuerint  alvaria  vimine  texta 

IV.  190  in  noctem,  fessosque  sopor  suus  occupat  artus. 

Such  verses  are  numerous,^  but  in  many  of  them,  as  for  that 
matter  in  all  the  classes,  there  are  often  other  prmciples 
at  work  as  well,  such  as  likeness  or  contrast,  and  consider- 
ations of  rhyme  and  euphony. 

The  last  arrangement  of  noun  and  substantive  within  the 
verse  covers  the  cases  where  two  pairs  occur,  but  the  first 
noun  has  its  own  adjective  before  the  other  pair  is  begun. 
Both  adjectives  may  precede  their  respective  nouns,  as  in 

IV.  82  .     .    .    -u      V 

ipsi  per  medias  acies  msigmbus  aiis, 

both  may  follow,  as  in  III.  231 

frondibus  hirsutis  et  carice  pastus  acuta, 
"  In  Bk.  I,  22  times;  II.  31;  III,  22;  IV,  25. 


36 

or  one  may  precede  and  one  follow,  as  in  III.  243 

et  genus  aequoreum,  pecudes,  pictaeque  volucres.  .  . 
The  second  type  is  of  less  frequent  occurrence,  while  the 
other  two  vary  little  in  their  statistics,  except  in  the  first  book, 
where  the  ratio  is  24  :  17  in  favor  of  both  adjectives  preceding 
their  nouns.  In  view  of  the  great  tendency  of  the  single 
adjective  to  precede,  the  frequent  arrangement  of  the  two 
pairs  so  that  one  attribute  follows  seems  a  distinct  concession 
to  artistic  placing,  despite  the  easy  and  natural  impulse  of 
the  mind  to  chiasmus. 

The  frequency  of  Vergil's  use  of  such  pairs  of  noun  and 
adjective  is,  as  one  would  expect,  intermediate  between  the 
usage  of  authors  who  have  almost  none  of  it  and  those  who 
use  it  to  excess.  The  arrangement  is  practically  unknown  in 
Ennius,  occurs  rarely  in  Lucretius,  to  excess  in  Catullus  64, 
and  more  often  in  the  Bucolics  and  Georgics  than  in  the 
Aeneid.^° 

In  a  different  sphere  of  composition  Plautus  shows  the  same 
sort  of  artistic  word  order .^^  Leo  in  an  article  on  word  order 
in  Plautus  deals  first  with  the  position  of  prepositions  and 
nouns  and  groups  that  were,  or  were  on  their  way  to  becoming, 
fixed.  But  beyond  this  he  gives  instances  of  interlocked 
order  as  an  artistic  means  in  Plautus'  poetry,  as  it  became 
one  of  the  most  important  means  in  the  poetry  of  the  Augustan 
age.  He  assigns  the  development  of  this  order  to  the  tendency 
of  like  parts  of  speech  to  juxtaposition,  as  also  of  words  from 
the  same  root,  and  of  words  from  different  roots  with  similar 

"  Norden,  Comm.  to  Aen.  VI.  Anhang  III.  p.  385,  where  the  investigation 
is  made  for  cases  of  both  adjectives  preceding  the  nouns.  Cf .  Fridericus  Caspari, 
op.  cit.,  p.  88  for  a  table  giving  ratios  of  the  proportional  use  of  the  arrangement 
by  Vergil's  predecessors  and  his  followers — Ennius,  A.  1:  428;  Lucretius,  I.  VI. 
1:140;  Cicero,  Aratea,  1:13;  Catullus,  64,  1:7;  Vergilius,  A.  I,  VI.  1:43;  Georg., 
I :  IV,  1 :  16 ;  Bucolics,  1:21,  Ovidius,  Met.  1.1:18;  Lucanus,  1.11.111.1:9;  Silius, 
I.  1:  13;  Val.  Fl.  I.  1:  18;  Statius,  Th..  I.  1:  15. 

"  F.  Leo,  Bemerkungen  iiber  plautinische  Wortstellung  und  Wortgruppea, 
Gott.  Nacht.,  51,  pp.  415-33. 


37 

or  contrasted  meaning.  He  quotes  a  case  in  Umbrian,  and 
for  words  of  similar  and  contrasted  meaning,  the  Scipio 
inscription,  hone  oino  ploirume  .  .  .  duonoro  optumo.  In  the 
ancient  Latin  language  it  is  above  all  the  pronouns  which 
are  thus  brought  together,  but  the  same  principle  evolves  the 
interlocked  order  of  noun  and  adjective.  In  addition  to  the 
statistics  given  by  Caspari,  there  are  studies  of  this  interlocked 
order  of  adjective  and  substantive  which  show  that  it  is  of 
frequent  occurrence  in  Horace.^^  In  the  elegiac  poets  it  is 
found  to  amount  to  one  in  five  verses  in  Tibullus,  one  in  four 
in  Propertius,  and  one  to  four  in  Ovid.^^  These  poets  even 
exceed  Catullus'  frequent  use  in  the  sixty-fourth  poem,  al- 
though the  investigation  covered  more  arrangements  for  the 
elegiac  poets  than  Caspari,  following  Norden,  included  in  his 
estimate  for  Catullus. 

So  far  the  discussion  has  been  restricted  to  the  verse,  but 
Vergil's  construction  is  frequently  "  run-on  "^^  and  there  are 
many  cases  where  the  verse-end  divides  substantive  and 
attribute.  Sometimes  the  noun  is  divided  from  one  or  more 
adjectives,  sometimes  one  of  the  more  elaborate  arrangements 
of  pairs  discussed  above  is  thus  broken.  Frequently  in  the 
third  and  fourth  books  (twenty  times  in  each),  where  there 
are  more  cases  (85  and  66  as  opposed  to  45  in  I  and  45  in  II) 
of  noun  and  substantive  separated  by  verse-end,  do  we  find 
the  noun  preceding,  sometimes  with  other  attributes  in  its 
own  verse,  as, 

III.  66-7        optima  quaeque  dies  miseris  mortalibus  aevi 

prima  fugit 
III.  245-6       tempore  non  alio  catulorum  oblita  leaena 

saevior  erravit  campis, 
III.  425-6       est  etiam  ille  malus  Calabris  in  saltibus  anguis 
squamea  convolvens  sublato  pectore  terga. 
'2  H.  Eggers,  De  ordine  et  figuris  verborum  quibus  Horatius  in  carminibus 
U3U3  est,  pp.  68-73.     Also  B.  Born,  Programm  der  Domschule  zu  Magdeburg 
1891,  treats  special  odes  with  reference  to  word  order. 

w  Walter  Gebhard,  De  Tibulli  Propertii  Ovidii  distichis.     See  table  at  end. 
"  175  verses,  one  third  of  the  total  in  Bk.  I  are  so  constructed. 


38 

Sometimes  the  noun  itself  finishes  a  verse,  but  begins  a  new 
clause,  as, 

III.  224-5       nee  mors  bellantis  una  stabulare,  sed  alter 
victus  abit  longeque  ignotis  exsulat  oris 

III.  546-7       ipsis  et  aer  avibus  non  aequus,  et  illae 

praecipites  alta  vitara  sub  nube  relinquunt. 

IV.  53-5         illae  continue  saltus  silvasque  peragrant 

purpureosque  metunt  flores  et  flumina  libant 
summa  leves. 

The  last  passage  shows  extreme  separation  in  illae  leves,  and 
summa  separated  from  flumina  and  drawn  by  the  principle  of 
likeness  to  leves}^  In  general  the  noun  and  the  adjective  are 
no  farther  apart  than  the  limit  of  two  verses,  and  they  fre- 
quently occupy  corresponding  positions  in  the  two,  as, 

II.  308-9        et  totum  involvit  flammis  nemus  et  ruit  atram 

ad  caelum  picea  crassus  caligine  nubem 
II.  80-1  plantae  immittuntur:  nee  longum  tempus  et  ingens 

exiit  ad  caelum  ramis  felicibus  arbos 

II.  458-9         O  fortunatos,  nimium,  sua  si  bona  norint, 

agricolas!  quibus  .  .  . 

(Compare  I.  331-2,  476-7.) 

There  are  cases  of  the  interlocked  order  of  substantive  and 
attribute  carried  across  the  verse-end,  as, 

I.  485-6         aut  puteis  manare  cruor  cessavit,  et  altae 

per  noetem  resonare  lupis  ululantibus  urbes. 

I-  487-8  non  alias  caelo  ceciderunt  plura  sereno 

fulgura  nee  diri  totiens  arsere  cometae. 

IV.  268-9       arentisque  rosas,  aut  igni  pinguia  multo 

defruta  vel  psithia  passos  de  vite  racemos. 

There  are  many  cases  of  two  adjectives  in  the  first  verse 
belonging  to  two  nouns  in  the  second,  as, 

III.  506-7       spiritus,  interdum  gemitu  gravis,  imaque  longo 

ilia  singultu  tendunt,  it  naribus  ater 

I.  338-9  in  primis  venerare  deos,  atque  annua  magnae 

sacra  refer  Cereri  laetis  operatus  in  herbis 

II.  190-1         hie  tibi  praevalidas  olim  multoque  fluentis 

sufficiet  Baccho  vitis,  hie  fertilis  uvae  .  .  . 
»  Compare  IV.  317-9,  Aristaeus  tristis  and  322-4  me  invisum. 


(Compare  1. 14-15,  357-8,  371-2;  II.  262-3;  III.  354-5,  376-7, 
442-3;  IV.  127-8,  140-1.) 

This  naturally  brings  the  discussion  to  the  use  Vergil  makes 
of  single  words  or  short  phrases  carried  over  into  the  succeeding 
verse,  followed  by  a  marked  pause.  This,  of  course,  has  a 
different  effect  from  the  simple  run-on  construction  of  two  or 
more  verses,  where  the  whole,  or  at  least  a  larger  part,  of  the 
following  verse  is  included  in  the  original  sentence.  This 
pause  is  used  with  various  effects,^^  but  the  one  effect  inherent 
in  the  pause  is  emphasis  by  the  somewhat  unexpected  check 
to  the  flow  of  the  verse  so  soon  after  its  beginning.  The  com- 
bined effect  of  this  emphasis  with  the  meaning  of  the  words 
themselves  so  placed  gives  the  heightened  force  of  suddenness, 
excitement,  or  dead  check  so  often  noted  in  connection  with 
the  use  of  the  pause. 

In  the  Georgics  examples  of  such  words  or  short  phrases 
carried  over  with  pause  are  numerous,  as, 

I.  107-10        et,  cum  exustus  ager  morientibus  aestuat  herbis, 
ecce  supercilio  clivosi  tramitis  undam 
elicit?  ilia  cadens  raucum  per  levia  murmur 
eaxa  ciet,  scatebrisque  arentia  temperat  arva. 

Here  elicit  by  its  position  indicates  the  sudden  burst  of  the 
water  over  the  rocks  (saxa  ciet,  with  its  pause,  marking  another 
less  striking  stage  in  its  course)  .^^     In  I.  126-7 

ne  signare  quidem  aut  partiri  limite  campum 
fas  erat: 

the  position  oifas  erat  gives  heightened  emphasis  to  the  moral 
right  that  was  violated  by  the  division  and  marking  of  fields.^^ 

"  S.  E.  Winbolt,  Latin  Hexameter  Verse,  pp.  10  ff.,  notes  the  effect  of 
emphasis,  of  suddenness  or  rapidity,  of  variety  in  the  rhythm,  of  tragic  excite- 
ment, scorn,  indignation,  a  dead  check,  etc.,  gained  in  this  way. 

"  Compare  1.  326,  diluit;  333,  deicit.  II.  210,  283,  368,  510.  III.  67,  111,  198, 
277,  422,  446-7,  543.  IV.  79,  173,  189,  313,  351,  410,  440,  555. 

68  Compare  I.  236,  456,  477;  II.  16,  144,  147,  311,  406;  III.  41,  101,  173,  192, 
227,  259,  343,  364,  389,  508;  IV.  22.  32,  61,  98,  107,  192,  204,  212, 226,  309,  356, 
391,  483,  493,  515,  540,  542. 


40 

In  I.  133-4 

ut  varias  usus  meditando  extunderet  artia 
paulatim,  .... 

similar  is  the  position  of  paulatim.  Though  the  pause  is  not 
so  heavy,  and  is  followed  immediately  by  et,  joined  even  more 
closely  to  the  adverb  by  elision,  still  the  slow  progress  in 
man's  art  of  farming  is  dragged  on  by  the  adverb  reserved  to 
the  end  of  its  clause  and  opening  a  new  verse  with  quite  a 
perceptible  pause  following.  It  is  again  the  same  note  as  the 
durum  genus  of  I.  63,  and  the  frequent  labor,  lahores  hominum- 
que  boumque,  and  (II.  401)  redit  agricolis  labor  actus  in  orbem, 
and  again  (II.  513)  agricola  incurvo  terram  dimovit  aratro  with 
its  calm  slow-moving  inevitable  round  after  the  varied  and 
turbulent  business  of  the  men  who  care  not  for  the  glory  of 
the  divine  country.     In  I.  150-3 

mox  et  frumentis  labor  additus,  ut  mala  culmos 
esset  robigo  segnisque  horreret  in  arvis 
carduus; 

carduus  effectively  stops  progress  with  its  prickly,  clinging 
shoots.  There  is  the  death  of  the  crops  and  the  rise  of  an 
unruly  kingdom  of  outlaws  that  tend  to  twine  themselves  into 
a  veritably  impassable  thicket  with  the  -que's  of  the  next 
verse, 

lappaeque  tribolique  interque  nitentia  culta 
infelix  lolium  et  steriles  dominantur  avenae. 

I.  463-4  solem  quis  dicere  falsum 

audeat  ? 

gives  by  position  an  emphasis  and  bold  defiance  to  audeat 
that  would  force  humbled  credence  for  the  miracles  to  follow. 
So  in  the  passage  11.  88-90 

ergo  non  hiemes  illam,  non  flabra  neque  imbres 

convellunt :  immota  manet  multosque  nepotes 

convellunt  gives  a  most  effective  pause  after  the  spondaic 

opening  to  denote  resistence  to  motion,  the  notion  of  the 

slow-dragging  paulatim  noted  above.^® 

"  Compare  I.  241;  II.  352,  381;  III.  424,  506,  510,  512;  IV.  196,  311,  515. 


41 

In  many  other  verses  where  there  is  a  similar  structure  the 
pause  serves  merely  a  rhythmical  purpose,  or  to  give  the 
necessary  stop  for  both  thought  and  voice  after  two  or  more 
run-on  verses.  The  pause  in  itself  need  have  no  rhetorical 
significance,  though  it  is  a  valuable  aid  along  with  the  other 
means  for  various  effects. 

Of  the  phrases  so  carried  over  into  a  new  verse  verbs,  or 
verbs  and  a  modifier,  are  of  most  frequent  occurrence  (177 
out  of  275  cases),  doubtless  because  of  the  definite  tendency 
of  the  verb  in  Latin  toward  the  last  of  the  sentence;  and 
many  of  the  cases  that  show  no  rhetorical  purpose  are  of  this 
nature.  It  is  the  use  of  the  verb  in  this  position,  however, 
that  often  denotes  suddenness  or  slowness  of  action.  If  a 
noun,  adjective,  or  adverb  is  so  placed,  there  is  an  emphasis 
thrown  upon  it  that  may  enhance  the  meaning  of  the  verb, 
but  more  often  brings  into  prominence  some  other  idea. 
Particularly  effective  is  this  position  for  a  vocative,  and  so  it 
occurs  frequently : 

II.  96  et  quo  te  carmine  dicam 

Rhaetica? 
II.  41                Maecenas,  pelagoque  volans  da  vela  patent! 
I.  14  tuque  o,  cui  prima  frementem 

fudit  equum  magno  tellus  percussa  tridenti, 

Neptune ; 
I.  17  ipse  nemus  linqueps  patrium  saltusque  Lycaei 

Pan,  ovium  custos,  tua  si  tibi  Maenala  curae. 

Some  importance  attaches  to  the  position  of  the  verb  as  often 
the  most  telling  word  of  the  sentence.  In  addition  to  the 
tendency  just  noted  for  the  verb  to  constitute  the  run-on  part 
of  the  clause,  there  is  the  balance  of  verbs  complementary  to 
each  other,  or  contrasted,  for  the  full  expression  of  a  thought. 
Such  verbs  are  put  into  the  prominent  positions  of  opening 
and  closing  a  verse,  an  arrangement  which  is  often  chiastic, 
the  two  subjects  being  thrown  together  within  the  verse.  The 
same  position  of  the  verbs  without  chiasmus  appears  also, 


42 

especially  when  the  opening  verb  is  brought  over  from  the 
preceding  verse.     Infinitives  are  so  balanced  in 

I.  130  praedarique  lupos  iussit  pontumque  moveri 
III.  191  carpere  mox  gyrum  incipiat  gradibusque  sonare. 

Thus  the  vivid  present  tenses  of  description  are  placed, 

III.  232  et  tempt  at  sese  atque  irasci  in  cornua  discit 

II.  503  sollicitant  alii  remis  freta  caeca,  ruuntque 

IV.  256  exportant  tectis  et  tristia  funera  ducunt  .  .  . 

(Compare  III.  375.  IV.  57,  104,  157,  172,  196,  202,  311,  456.) 
But  there  is  no  restriction  on  the  tense  or  mode,  subjunctives, 
perfect  indicatives,  especially  the  shortened  forms,  (III.  378, 
IV.  204)  and  gerundives  being  freely  used.  (Compare  I.  149, 
350,  419;  11.  62,  166,  366,  371,  418,  477;  III.  137.)  Sometimes 
the  same  arrangement  is  made  for  the  clause,  though  another 
word  opens  the  verse,  I.  479, 

infandum!  sistunt  amnes  terraeque  dehiscunt, 

a  repetition  of  the  same  device  shown  in  the  participles  of  the 
preceding  verse, 

.  .  .  et  simulacra  modis  pallentia  miris 
visa  sub  obscurum  noctis,  pecudesque  locutae. 

As  is  to  be  expected,  the  verbs  so  placed  are  generally  pictur- 
esque ones.  There  seems  to  be  no  case  of  esse,  habere,  venire, 
ire,  though  det  and  dicat  of  I.  350 

quam  Cereri  torta  redimitus  tempora  quercu 
det  motus  incompositos  et  carmina  dicat 

are  colorless  enough.  Colorless  also  are  stat  and  dicit  of 
IV.  356 

tristis  Aristaeus  Penei  genitoria  ad  undam 
stat  lacrimans,  et  te  crudelem  nomine  dicit. 

So,  too,  is  one  of  the  pair  in  IV.  402 

cum  sitiunt  herbae  et  pecori  iam  gratior  umbra  est. 
This  balance  is  but  carried  a  step  further  when  the  construction 
runs  over  two  verses,  and  one  opens  and  the  other  closes 
with  a  verb. 


43 

So  11.  51-2 

exuerint  silvestrem  animum,  cultuque  frequent! 
in  quascumque  voles  artis  haud  tarda  sequentur. 
II.  510-11         corripuit;  gaudent  perfusi  sanguine  fratrum, 
exsilioque  domos  et  dulcia  limina  mutant 

is  essentially  the  same,  despite  the  opening  corripuit  brought 
over  from  the  preceding  verse  with  heightened  effect  for  the 
preceding  clause.  Note  also  II.  294-5  quoted  above  and 
IV.  19-20 

at  liquidi  fontes  et  stagna  virentia  musco 
adsint  et  tenuis  fugiens  per  gramina  rivus, 
palmaque  vestibulum  aut  ingens  oleaster  inumbret. 

Sometimes  by  opening  consecutive  verses  with  verbs 
attention  is  caught,  and  the  same  thing  is  true  of  closing  con- 
secutive verses  with  them,  though  this  is  not  so  frequent  an 
arrangement  as  the  preceding.  Thus  are  placed  vidi  and 
degenerare  of  I.  197-8 

vidi  lecta  diu  et  multo  spectata  labore 
degenerare  tamen,  ni  vis  humana  quotannis  .  .  . 

Note  also  the  three  verses  I.  418-20 

verum  ubi  tempestas  et  caeli  mobilis  umor 
mutavere  vices  et  luppiter  uvidus  Austris 
denset  erant  quae  rara  modo,  et  quae  densa  relaxat, 
vertuntur  species  animorum  et  pectora  motus 
nunc  alios,  alios  dum  nubila  ventus  agebat, 
concipiunt : 

and  the  closing  verses  of  the  first  book,  513-4 

addunt  in  spatio,  et  frustra  retinacula  tendens 
fertur  equis  auriga  neque  audit  currus  habenas. 

(Compare  II.  81-2, 330-1 ;  III.  433-4, 446-7,  458-9;  IV.  162-4, 
330-1.)     Examples  of  consecutive  verses  ending  with  verbs  are 

I.  300-1       frigoribus  parto  agricolae  plerumque  fruuntur 

mutuaque  inter  se  laeti  convivia  curant, 

II.  479-80  unde  tremor  terris,  qua  vi  maria  alta  tumescant 

obicibus  ruptis  rursusque  in  se  ipsa  residant, 
IV.  237-8  morsibus  inspirant,  et  spicula  caeca  relinquunt 
affixae  venis,  animasque  in  vulnere  ponunt. 


44 

(Compare  I.  195-6;  II.  266-8,  407-9;  III.  501-2;  IV.  225-6, 
504-5,  545-6.) 

There  are  found  verses  one  of  which  opens  with  a  verb, 
while  the  other  both  opens  and  closes  with  verbs,  or  where 
the  verse  with  two  verbs  comes  first  and  the  second  closes  with 
one,  as, 

II.  218-9     quae  tenuem  exhalat  nebulam  fumosque  volucris, 

et  bibit  umorem  et,  cum  vult,  ex  se  ipsa  remittit, 
quaeque  suo  semper  viridi  se  gramine  vestit, 
IV.  514-5  flet  noctem,  ramoque  sedens  miserabile  carmen 
integrat,  et  maestis  late  loca  questibus  implet. 

(Compare  I.  148-9;  III.  232-3;  IV.  103-4.)  Sometimes  the 
arrangement  is  varied  by  an  intervening  verse  with  no  verb, 
or  with  a  verb  within  the  verse,  as, 

III.  551-3  saevit  et  in  lucem  Stygiis  emissa  tenebris 

pallida  Tisiphone  Morbos  agit  ante  Metumque, 
inque  dies  avidum  surgens  caput  altius  effert. 
368-70        intereunt  pecudes,  stant  circumfusa  pruinis 

corpora  magna  boum,  confertoque  agmine  cervi 
torpent  mole  nova  et  sim[imis  vix  cornibus  exstant. 

IV.  51-4  shows  four  verses  balanced  in  pairs  with  closing 

verbs, 

quod  superest,  ubi  pulsam  hiemem  Sol  aureus  egit 
sub  terras  caelumque  aestiva  luce  reclusit, 
illae  continue  saltus  silvasque  peragrant 
purpureosque  metunt  flores  et  flumina  libant. 

In  comparison,  however,  with  the  elaborate  interweaving 
of  substantives  and  attributes,  the  cases  of  rhetorical  manipu- 
lation of  the  verb  are  few.  Despite  the  genius  of  the  Latin 
language  for  descriptive  verbs,  such  a  poem  as  the  Georgics 
would  naturally  depend  more  upon  the  nouns  and  adjectives 
for  color  and  richness  of  effect.  The  things  Vergil  is  talking 
of  need  to  be  raised  to  an  unwonted  dignity  and  liveliness, 
and  there  is  more  flexibility  for  shades  of  meaning  in  sub- 
stantive and  attribute  than  in  a  verb.  Note  the  proportion 
of  substantive  with  or  without  attribute  to  corresponding 


45 

verb  in  the  expressions  for  a  few  ideas  of  frequent  occurrence. 
Cursus  occurs  eight  times,  currere  four  times  (three  times  as 
participle  used  as  adjective);  arafrum,  thirteen  times,  arator, 
four  times,  arare,  four  times;  semen,  eleven  times,  severe  as 
verb,  twelve  times  (as  substantive  the  participle  appears  ten 
times);  labor,  thirty-four  times,  lahorare,  once  (the  participle 
is  used  as  substantive). 

For  the  position  of  words  regardless  of  verse  structure  the 
principles  of  likeness  or  contrast  in  the  thought  often  seem  to 
be  the  guide.  Frequently  one  word  borrows  reflected  quality 
from  its  neighbor,  though  the  neighbor  may  be  construed  with 
an  entirely  different  word  in  the  sentence.  If  Herbert 
Spencer's  reasoning,  quoted  above  (p.  26)  with  regard  to  the 
position  of  noun  and  adjective,  is  correct,  such  interweaving 
of  impressions  in  any  language  where  the  structure  is  periodic 
to  the  extent  that  it  is  in  Latin  is  imperative.  When  once 
this  fact  is  grasped,  the  writer  has  at  hand  a  means  for  all  sorts 
of  subtle  shading  and  enriching  of  an  impression  beyond  the 
inherent  meaning  of  his  words  and  their  grammatical  con- 
nection in  the  sentence.  While  the  mind  is  holding  qualities 
and  concepts  in  suspension,  the  reflected  light  of  one  upon 
another  will  largely  create  the  atmosphere  of  the  picture. 
So  attritus  and  splendescere  side  by  side  heighten  the  impression 
of  gleam  in  I.  46 

ingemere,  et  sulco  attritus  splendescere  vomer. 

In  sol  aureus  astra  (I.  232)  the  juxtaposition  of  aureus  and 
astra  sheds  a  golden  light  on  the  twelve  constellations  through 
which  the  sun  moves,  as  nigrum  and  obscuro  in  I.  428 
si  nigrum  obscuro  comprenderit  aera  cornu 

serve  to  reinforce  the  darkness  of  the  sky  and  the  mistiness 
of  the  crescent. 

Munera  and  supplex  (IV.  534)  have  a  natural  attraction  for 
each  other  in  the  ideas  of  Roman  religion.     So  the  adjectives 


46 

of  size  tend  to  come  together  by  likeness,  as  in  IV.  366  omnia 
per  magna,  560  magnm  ad  altum,  III.  238  longius  ex  altoque; 
adjectives  of  similar  meaning  come  together,  as  in  IV.  337 
nitidam  per  Candida,  425  torrens  sitientis,  II.  264  lahefacta 
movens,  341  progenies  duris,  recalling  the  durum  genus  of  I.  63. 

In  II.  430  this  principle  of  likeness  leads  one  on  through  all 
the  verse  sanguineisque  inculta  ruhent  aviaria  bads  with  the 
ideas  of  blood,  roughness,  the  birds'  glen  turned  red,  until  the 
surprising  significance  is  seen  in  bacis,  and  the  picture  is  a 
forest  stretch  aglow  with  brilliant  berries,  instead  of  the 
wild  and  gory  scene  the  mind  was  preparing.     So  in  IV.  17 

ore  ferunt  dulcem  nidis  immitibus  escam 
there  is  a  feeling  of  tenderness  through  dulcem  nidis,  the  ideas 
of  sweetness  and  youth  joining  through  this  same  principle 
of  likeness,  and  it  is  a  surprise  to  meet  the  following  immitibus. 
The  new  turn  at  the  end  partakes  of  the  nature  of  contrast, 
but  the  position  of  the  words  is  not  governed  by  that  principle, 
else  dulcem  and  immitibus  would  stand  side  by  side,  and  the 
illuminating  surprise  of  the  picture  would  be  lost. 

To  multiply  examples  of  position  from  likeness  would  be 
easy,  but  useless.     Some  one  hundred  and  sixty  have  been 
noted  throughout  the  poem,  while  only  about  eighty  cases  of 
position  by  contrast  have  been  discovered.^° 
I.  31  teque  sibi  generum  Tethys  emat  omnibus  undis 

shows  two  cases  of  contrast  in  the  placing  of  te,  sibi  and 
generum,  Tethys,  though  according  to  Leo's  account  (op.  cit., 
p.  432)  the  tendency  of  like  parts  of  speech  toward  each  other 
might  account  for  it  here,  as  often  elsewhere.  That  very 
tendency,  however,  must  have  some  mental  connectJbn 
behind  it,  and  this  investigation  of  arrangement  by  likeness  or 

"For  examples  of  position  by  likeness  compare  I.  43,  114,  146,  186,  301, 
412,  480;  II.  71,  111,  198,  362,  461,  508;  III.  14,  47,  161,  185,  205,  366,  391. 
422;  IV,  79,  93,  133,  402,  438,  et  passim.  For  position  by  contrast  compare 
I.  32,  70,  91,  208,  224;  II.  19,  199,  370,  496;  III.  31,  124,  153,  162,  356,  437,  510, 
651;  IV.  85,  190,  263,  302,  332,  et  passim. 


47 

contrast  shows  that  often  those  principles  are  the  underlying 
cause  of  the  tendency.  Pronouns,  for  example,  come  together 
(the  case  noted  chiefly  by  Leo  for  early  Latin^^),  but  pronouns 
represent  parties  to  an  action  in  less  vivid  form  than  their 
substantives  would,  and  the  contrast  of  the  one  with  the  other 
is  all  the  more  valuable  because  of  the  lack  of  vividness. 
If  this  was  the  origin  of  the  use  that  spread  to  nouns  and 
adjectives  and  even  to  verbs  (IV.  172  accipiunt  redduntque) 
when  once  its  force  had  been  realized,  a  large  part  of  the 
elaboration  of  word  placing  would  seem  to  be  due  to  the 
working  of  these  two  principles. 

A  comparison  with  the  usage  of  Horace  is  somewhat  enlight- 
ening as  to  one  quality  of  Vergil's  style.  H.  Eggers,  in  a 
dissertation  on  Horace,^^  notes  some  sixty-seven  cases  of 
striking  juxtaposition  by  contrast,  without  claiming  that 
his  examples  are  exhaustive  at  all.  The  use  of  contrast  gives 
a  sort  of  brilliance  and  sparkle  to  style,  the  contrasted  words 
being,  as  it  were,  the  facets  of  an  elaborately  cut  stone,  and 
this  brilliance  one  gets  in  Horace  to  a  striking  extent,  while 
in  Vergil  it  is  harmony  and  the  gentle  flow  of  exquisitely  fitted 
ideas  that  give  his  poetry— the  Georgics,  at  least — such  a 
subtle  charm.  Whether  Horace's  metres,  with  the  shorter 
verses  in  which  there  is  less  room  for  the  rounding  out  of  an 
idea,  taught  him  to  depend  more  upon  the  bold  arresting 
strokes  of  contrast,  or  whether  a  difference  in  the  nature  of 
the  two  men  lay  behind  these  varying  tendencies  toward 
brilliancy  or  toward  harmony  it  might  be  difiicult  to  determine. 
What  we  know  of  Vergil's  disposition,  his  way  of  life  and  his 
tastes,  and  what  we  see  in  his  poems  would  lead  one  to  say 
that  there  was  in  him  an  innate  love  of  harmony,  governing 
both  life  and  work.  The  monotonous  brilliancy  of  Pope's 
frequent  antitheses  would  have  been  impossible  to  him. 

«i  See  above,  pp.  36,  37. 

«2  H.  Eggers,  De  ordine  et  figuris  verborum  quibus  Horatius  ia  carminibus 
usus  est,  pp.  54-5. 


Ill 

Euphonic  Devices 

First  to  be  discussed  under  the  head  of  euphonic  devices  is 
alHteration,  as  probably  the  most  obvious  form,  and  certainly 
that  most  commented  on.  In  Latin  it  is  traced  back  for  its 
origin  to  the  earliest  forms  of  the  literature,  the  fragments  of 
chants,  inscriptions  and  proverbs.^^  Saturnian  verse,  in  the 
fragments  that  have  survived,  shows  alliteration  in  more  than 
half  the  number  of  verses.^*  In  the  early  poets,  however, 
such  as  Ennius,  Plautus  and  Terence,  its  use,  while  more 
cumulative,  is  not  so  frequent.  Botticher  speaks  of  a  steady 
decrease  in  its  use  as  literature  developed,®^  but  even  in  its 
decrease  it  is  much  in  evidence  in  Lucretius^^  and  in  Catullus,^^ 
while  Propertius  is  as  greatly  given  to  the  practice  as  any 
Latin  poet  later  than  the  early  period.^^  Vergil's  extensive 
use  of  alliteration  in  the  Aeneid  is  discussed  by  Kvicala,  and 
"die  imponirend  grosse  Zahl  dieser  Falle  am  besten  geeignet 
ist  jeden  etwaigen  Zweifel  zu  beiseitigen."^^ 

It  remains  to  add  cases  of  occurrence  in  the  Georgics,  and 

to  show  the  skill  rather  than  the  frequency  of  its  use.     In  the 

.following  study  alliteration  has  been  used  to  designate  the 

use  of  an  identical  initial  sound,  whether  it  be  consonant  or 

6'  E.  WolfiBin,  Uber  die  alliterierenden  Verbindungen  d.  lat.  Spr.,  29. 
He  finds  its  origin  in  prose,  set  formulas  and  proverbs. 

"  C.  Botticher,  De  alliterationis  apud  Romanos  vi  et  usu,  p.  11. 

«  Op.  cit.,  p.  12. 

•«  Ignaz  Schneider,  De  alliterationis  apud  T.  Lucretium  Carum  usu  ac  vi. 

•'.Ziwsa,  Die  eurhythmische  Technik  des  Catullus,  pp.  5-19. 

"  B.  O.  Foster,  On  Certain  Euphonic  Embellishments  in  the  Verse  of 
Propertius,  T.  A.  P.  A.,  Vol.  40,  p.  62. 

"  Kvicala,  Neue  Beitrage  zur  Erklarung  der  Aeneis  nebst  mehreren  Ex- 
cursen  und  Abhandlungen,  pp.  293-447. 
48 


49 

vowel.  An  initial  sound  echoed  again  within  its  own  word, 
or  within  another,  is  often  noted  for  its  effect  upon  the  melody 
of  a  passage,  but  the  case  has  not  been  counted  in  the  examples 
of  alliteration.  This  stylistic  means  is  independent  of  Alex- 
andrianism,  and  in  Vergil's  use  of  it  there  is  additional  proof 
that  he  was  no  blind  devotee  of  a  school,  but  that  as  a  work- 
man who  knew  the  value  and  the  limitations  of  his  tools  he 
was  ready  to  avail  himself  of  them,  so  far  as  they  contributed 
to  the  artistic  expression  of  his  thought. 

His  most  striking  characteristic  in  the  use  of  alliteration  is 
the  subtlety  of  the  sound  repetition.  Several  words  in  suc- 
cession beginning  with  the  same  letter  are  rare,  the  Georgics 
furnishing  but  twenty-two  cases  in  the  whole  poem  of  two 
thousand,  one  hundred  and  eight-eight  verses.  The  first 
book  furnishes 

389  et  sola  in  sicca  secum  spatiatur  harena 
405  et  pro  purpureo  poenas  dat  Scylla  capillo. 

Both  examples  occur  in  elaborate  passages,  verse  389  belonging 
to  an  onomatopoetic  description  of  the  crow. 

In  some  verses  alliteration  serves  with  other  euphonic 
means  to  buttress  a  weighty  thought,  as, 

II.  294-5        convellunt:  immota  manet  multosque  nepotes 
multa  virum  volvens  durando  saecula  vincit. 

Note  also 

II.  425  hoc  pinguem  et  placitam  Paci  nutritor  olivam 

III.  40  interea  Dryadum  silvas  saltusque  sequamur 

IV.  351  obstipuere;  sed  ante  alias  Arethusa  sorores.^" 

When  such  examples  are  contrasted  with  instances  that 
show  three,  four,  or  more  words  in  alliteration,  as  they  are 
found  in  Plautus,  Terence  and  Ennius  the  change  in  taste 
between  these  poets  and  Vergil  is  striking.  From  the  early 
poets  note  the  following  examples:  Plant.,  Mil.  226  reperi, 

"Compare  II.  436,  452-3;  III.  65,  109,  182,  203,  344,  362,  543;  IV.  208, 
218,  392,  420,  432. 


50 

comminiscere,  cedo  calidum  consilium  cito;"^  Aul.  279  nam 
ecastor  malum  maerore  metuo  ne  mixtum  bibam;  Enn.,  Ann. 
33  accipe  daque  fidem  foedusque  feri  bene  firmum;  Ann.  113 
O  Tite  tute  Tati  tibi  tanta  tyranne  tulisti;  Ann.  9  quae  cava 
corpore  caeruleo  cortina  receptat;  Enn.,  Trag.  41  mater 
optumarum  multo  mulier  melior  mulierum;^^  Ter.  Andr.  671 
nisi  si  id  putas,  quia  primo  processit  parum  tibi  non  posse 
iam  ad  salutem  convorti  hoc  malum;  Adelph.  133-4  si  istuc 
placet,  profundat,  perdat,  pereat,  nil  ad  me  attinet;  Eun.  780 
Solus  Sannio  servat  domi;  613-4  et  de  istac  simul,  quo  pacto 
porro  possim  potiri,  consilium  volo  capere  una  tecum. ^^ 
Even  in  Lucretius  verses  with  three  consecutive  words  showing 
alliteration  are  not  rare.  The  first  book  of  the  De  Rerum 
Natura  has  twenty-nine  cases. ^^ 

There  are  verses  which  show  three  words  beginning  with  the 
same  sound  when  no  two  are  consecutive.  This  is  a  still  less 
obtrusive  repetition,  and  it  gives  to  the  verse  as  a  whole  a 
freer  and  more  flowing  melody. 

II.  154  squameus  in  spiram  tractu  se  colligit  anguis 

III.  360  concrescunt  subitae  current!  in  flumine  crustae 

III.  346  non  secus  ac  patriis  acer  Romanus  in  armis 

IV.  332  tanta  meae  si  te  ceperunt  taedia  laudis.^^ 

Sometimes  the  repetition  is  spread  over  two  verses,  just  as  in 
clause  structure  Vergil  frequently  runs  over  the  verse-end,  as, 

IV.  333-4       At  mater  sonitum  thalamo  sub  fluminis  alti 

eensit. 
502-3  dicere  praeterea  vidit;  nee  portitor  Orci 

amplius  obiectam  passus  transire  paludem 

"'  For  alliteration  in  Miles  see  Richard  Klotz,  Zur  Allit.  u.  Symmetric  bei 
T.  M.  Plautus. 

"  Quoted  by  Botticher,  op.  cit.,  pp.  34-5. 

"  Quoted  by  A.  F.  Naek,  De  allit.  serm.  Lat.,  Rhein.  Mus.  3.  p.  361. 

''*  I.  14,  24,  28,  86,  89,  131,  163,  200,  202,  229,  234,  257,  271,  341,  411,  483. 
621.  529,  586,  605,  677,  681,  725,  726,  735,  794,  813,  900,  1024.  Cf.  also  II. 
116,  130,  582,  654;  III.  144,  456,  482,  747,  1040;  IV.  394.  902;  V.  961,  1193; 
VI.  115,  213,  719-20,  and  Ignaz  Schneider,  op.  cit.,  pp.  15-16. 

"Compare  I.  14,  200,  263,  424;  II.  159,  276,  362;  III.  185,  369,  372;  IV. 
91,  122,  181,  435,  453. 


51 

III.  425-6       est  etiam  ille  malus  Calabris  in  saltibus  anguis 

squamea  convolvens  sublato  pectore  terga. 
Alliterative  phrases  of  two  words  in  sequence,  or  connected 
by  one  of  the  short  conjunctions,  are  frequent  in  the  Georgics. 
So  much  seemed  pleasing  to  Vergil's  ear,  and  he  was  even 
willing  to  echo  this  same  sound  further  on  in  the  verse,  or  to 
use  the  sound  once  and  repeat  it  in  a  phrase  of  two  words 
later.  Naturally  the  effect  of  this  division  is  a  harmony  less 
obtrusive,  but  more  pleasing  than  the  bolder  repetition  of  the 
words  in  succession.     Note,  as  examples, 

I.  76  sustuleris  fragilis  calamos  silvamque  sonantem 

II.  292  aetherias  tantum  radice  in  Tartara  tendit 

II.  498  non  res  Romanae  perituraque  regna;  neque  ille 

IV.  225  scilicet  hue  reddi  deinde  ac  resoluta  referri" 

IV.  498  invalidasque  tibi  tendens,  heu  non  tua,  palmas." 

The  opening  sound  most  often  repeated  in  the  phrases  of 
two  words  is  a  (24  times). ^^  Phrases  beginning  with  c  and  s 
are  next  in  order  of  occurrence,  then  those  beginning  with 
p,  m,  V,  t,  f,  e,  i,  n,  I,  d.  Phrases  beginning  with  g,  o,  r,  u  also 
occur,  once  each,  but  there  are  no  alliterative  phrases  beginning 
with  b  or  consonantal  i.  The  absence  of  the  last  two  is  not 
surprising  in  view  of  the  relatively  few  Latin  words  that  begin 
with  those  sounds;  and  in  the  case  of  h  we  are  justified  in 
inferring  that  the  sound  was  not  considered  pleasant  or 
elegant  from  the  notions  the  ancients  attached  to  baba, 
balbus,  barbarus.  The  onomatopoetic  character  of  the  root 
is  traced  back  through  the  kindred  Greek  /3a/3a/,  ^dp^apo<;,  to 
the  Sanskrit  barbarah,  always  representing  unintelligible  or. 
unpleasant  sounds. ^^ 

'« Compare  De  Rerum  Natura,  II.  130  Commutare  vitam  retroque  repulsa 
reverti. 

"  Compare  I.  59,  68.  93,  141,  145,  152,  221,  227,  234,  240,  313,  314,  324,  329, 
336,  357-8,  439,  454,  500;  II.  19,  47,  57,  103-4.  215,  247,  309,  330,  334,  377,  479; 
III.  20,  34,  109,  141,  160,  213,  217-8,  306-7,  327-8.  329.  356,  483,  505;  IV.  25, 
64,  281,  301-2,  310,  311,  314,  319,  330.  346-7,  368,  378-9.  409-10,  560. 

'8 1.  47,  129,  160.  240.  273.  338;  II.  76,  280,  330,  465,  492;  III.  18,  46,  197, 
210,  304,  315.  439,  533;  IV.  44,  83,  110,  177,  244. 

"A.  Walde,  Latein.  etymol.  Worterbuch,  2teAufiage,  s.  vv.;  Emile  Boisacq. 
Dictionnaire  6tymologique  de  la  langue  grecque.  s.  vv. 


52 

It  is  possible  that  alliteration  as  a  means  for  catching  the 
attention  may  serve  to  indicate  grammatical  connection 
between  two  words,  as  in  avari  agricolae  (I.  47-8),  or  nimhorum 
in  node  (I.  328).  P>equently  it  seems  to  produce  a  rhetorical 
effect,  as  when  arduus  by  its  position  and  alliteration  with 
arces  (I.  240)  gives  the  idea  of  steepness  to  the  Riphaean 
heights,  as  well  as  that  of  loftiness  to  the  heavens  above. 
Oftenest  the  repetition  is  for  the  sake  of  the  sound,  if  not 
exclusively,  yet  paramountly.  Particularly  dangerous  is  the 
assumption  of  grammatical  connection  marked  by  alliteration, 
because  naturally  the  words  occurring  in  a  verse  are  connected 
grammatically,  and  almost  any  two  that  alliterate  may  be 
referred  to  this  cause.  Consequently,  in  general,  cases  of  noun 
and  adjective,  or  verb  and  subject,  or  verb  and  object,  or 
subject  and  object  in  alliteration  have  not  been  referred  to 
this  class.  If  noun  and  adjective  are  separated  at  any 
length,  the  attention  caught  by  their  alliteration  will  serve 
to  bring  them  together,  but,  if  they  are  side  by  side,  as  in  these 
short  phrases,  no  such  need  is  felt.  Besides,  in  a  richly  in- 
flected language  grammatical  connection  is  so  abundantly  taken 
care  of  that  one  should  be  slow  in  referring  a  euphonic  device 
to  this  cause.  For  the  very  reason  that  one  would  not  look 
to  this  agreement  in  sound  for  grammatical  connection,  the 
prominence  of  the  words  so  secured  may  the  more  readily 
serve  a  rhetorical  end,  and  examples  of  this  are  more  frequent. 
One  word  sheds  a  reflected  light  on  the  other,  as  in  the  juxta- 
posed arduus  arces  quoted  above, ^°  or  the  two  so  brought 
forward  in  consciousness  are  contrasted,  as  in  agitator  aselli 
(I.  273) 

saepe  oleo  tardi  costas  agitator  aselli 

vilibus  aut  onerat  pomis 

or,  convivia  curant  in  I.  301 

mutuaque  inter  se  laeti  convivia  curant^'.  .  . 

«»  Compare  I.  51,  232,    320,    373;  II.   169,    309,  376,  417,  511;  III.   114; 
IV.  99. 

"  Compare  II.  Ill,  253,  297,  419,  509;  III.  240,  315,  431;  IV.  S3. 


53 

Dulces  and  densae  of  I.  342 

turn  somni  dulces  densaeque  in  montibus  umbrae 
by  their  alliteration  and  position  rhetorically  bring  the  sleep 
and  shade  into  closer  union,  and  tend  to  make  both  adjectives 
go  with  both  nouns.  Most  alliterative  phrases,  however, 
seem  to  exist  for  the  pleasure  in  the  sound,  and  one  is  tempted 
to  call  some  cases  accidental,  despite  the  acknowledged  mini- 
mum place  of  the  accidental  in  the  Georgics.  The  most  that 
can  be  said  for  such  examples  as  II.  427-8 

et  viris  habuere  suas,  ad  sidera  raptim 

vi  propria  nituntur  opisque  baud  indiga  nostrae. 

is  that  the  alliteration  between  suas  and  sidera  did  not  offend 
the  poet's  ear.  It  certainly  does  not  seem  deliberately  sought. 
Such  is  the  case  with  tamen  tellus  in  11.  418 

sollicitanda  tamen  tellus  pulvisque  movendus, 
nec  non  in  II.  385,  451  and  nam  neque  in  I.  395.^^ 

Such  pairs  open  or  close  the  verse,  or  occupy  an  internal 
position  therein,  being  most  frequent  within  the  verse  and 
rarest  at  the  beginning.s^  This  is  worthy  of  note  in  view  of 
Kvicala's  elaborate  treatment  of  alliteration  at  the  verse-end 
in  the  Aeneid.^^  Schneider  in  his  treatment  of  Lucretius' 
use  of  alliteration  finds  likewise  that  the  position  within 
the  verse  is  most  frequent,  and  the  words  in  alliteration 
oftenest  have  the  caesura  fall  between  them.^^ 

A  form  of  alliteration  still  more  in  favor  with  Vergil  is  the 
combining  of  alliterative  pairs,  much  as  two  nouns  and  two 

82  Compare  I.  111.  338.  438;  II.  226,  331,  397,  434;  III.  274,  363.  416,  533. 
556;  IV.  42,  110,  116,  174,  244. 

83  Bk.  I.  within  18,  opening  7,  closing  10. 
Bk.  II.  42  7  14. 
Bk.  III.  42  5  9. 
Bk.  IV.            44                   7                 11. 

84  Kvicala,  op.  cit.,  pp.  333ff. 
86  Schneider,  op.  cit.,  p.  6. 


54 

adjectives  are  combined  within  a  verse.  A  pair  of  words  with 
the  same  initial  sound  is  followed  by  another  pair,  or,  if  the 
pairs  are  broken,  the  sounds  follow  in  the  same  order,  or 
reversed.     There  are  verses  like 

I.  354  quo  signo  caderent  Austri,  quid  saepe  videntes, 

I.  236  caeruleae,  glacie  concretae  atque  imbribus  atris, 

I.  346  omnis  quam  chorus  et  socii  comitentur  ovantes, 
IV.  8  principio  sedes  apibus  statioque  petenda. 

There  seems  to  be  no  preference  for  one  combination  over 
another.  Sometimes  one  sound  will  occur  three  times  and 
the  other  twice,  as 

II.  130  auxilium  venit  ac  membris  agit  atra  venena 
IV.  113           tecta  serat  late  circum  cui  talia  curae 

I.  173  binae  aures,  duplici  aptantur  dentalia  dorso 

III.  101  praecipue:  hinc  alias  artis  prolemque  parentum.^s 

Sometimes  a  verse  has  three  sounds,  each  occurring  as  often 
as  twice,  as, 

I.  123  movit  agros  curis  acuens  mortalia  corda 

I.  203  atque  ilium  in  praeceps  prono  rapit  alveus  amni 

III.  248  per  silvas:  turn  saevus  aper,  turn  pessima  tigris." 

This  naturally  leads  to  the  cases  where  one  or  more  sounds 
are  "run"  for  more  than  one  verse,  as, 

I.  217-8  candidus  auratis  aperit  cum  cornibus  annum 

Taurus  et  averse  cedens  Canis  occidit  astro 

I.  303-4  ceu  pressae  cum  iam  portum  tetigere  carinae 

puppibus  et  laeti  nautae  imposuere  coronas 

I.  402-3  solis  et  occasum  servans  de  culmine  summo 

nequiquam  seros  exercet  noctua  cantus.^s 

More  elaborate  still  is  the  interweaving  of  the  sounds  in 

II.  380-4        non  aliam  ob  culpam  Baccho  caper  omnibus  aria 

caeditur  et  veteres  ineunt  proscaenia  ludi 

praemiaque  ingeniis  pagos  et  compita  circum 

Thesidac  posuere,  atque  inter  pocula  laeti 

mollibus  in  pratis  unctos  saluere  per  utres. 
"  Compare  I.  305;  II.  2,  100,  219,  480;  III.  376,  434,  458;  IV.  113,  187,  245 
541. 

"Compare  I.  206;  II.  14,  380;  III.  448,  486;  IV.  66,  148,  258. 

«8  Compare  1. 326-7,  361-2;  III.  52-3,  79-80,  205-6,  297-8;  IV.  150-1,  409-10. 


55 

Here  the  repeated  sounds  are  a,  o,  c,  c,  o,  a,  c,  e,  i,  p,  1,  p,  i, 
p,  e,  c,  c,  p,  a,  i,  p,  1,  i,  p,  u,  p,  u:  a,  o,  c,  prominent  in  the  first 
part,  give  way  to  p— though  c  has  a  double  echo  at  the  end 
of  the  second  verse — and  the  lighter  vowels  e  and  i.  An 
echoed  /  is  introduced,  and  the  a  sound  again,  until  the  last 
verse  closes  with  the  heavy  vowel  u  joined  with  p  "golden- 
line-wise  with  an  s  to  keep  the  peace  betwixt  them."  Com- 
pare 

III.  199-201  lenibus  horrescunt  flabris,  summaeque  sonorem 
dant  silvae,  longique  urgent  ad  litora  fluctus, 
iUe  volet  simul  arva  fuga  simul  aequora  verrens 

where  the  repeated  sounds  are  1,  f,  s,  s,  s,  1,  a,  1,  f,  v,  s,  a,  f,  s,  v: 
/  and  s  dominate  at  first,  but  with/ occurring  once,  then  /  giving 
way,  /  reappearing,  s  growing  weaker  and  a  new  sound  v 
appearing  at  the  end  of  the  passage,  as  the  u  did  in  the  pre- 
ceding instance.  There  are  169  cases  in  the  Georgics  of 
such  alliterative  pairs,^^  and  because  of  the  interlocked  order 
and  the  separation  of  elements  that  are  to  be  taken  together 
grammatically  there  is  here  more  occasion  to  note  the  tendency 
of  alliteration  to  connect  such  elements,^^  although,  in  view  of 
the  great  number  of  cases  where  no  such  connection  is  dis- 
cernible, one  is  inclined  to  call  Vergil's  use  of  this  means  small. 
Of  the  two  pairs  one  is  rather  frequently  noun  and  attribute, 
but  the  other  pair  may  be  verb  and  some  adjective,  conjunc- 
tion or  adverb;  or  verb  and  noun  no  more  closely  connected 

89  I.  73,  116,  123,  142,  160,  189,  193,  201.  203,  206,  217,  218,  233,  236, 
243, 257, 267, 268, 298, 300, 303-4, 305, 326-7, 330, 335,  343,  346, 349,  354,  361-2, 
365,  388,  394,  402-3,  421,  422,  433,  461,  469,  485,  491,  501,  508;  II.  2,  14,  26, 
33,  41,  50,  53,  100,  102,  126,  130,  139,  148,  172,  219,  268,  277,  315,  327,  380, 
402,  420,  440,  441,  450,  470,  495,  500,  512;  III.  1,  16,  52-3.  62,  64,  79-80,  101, 
117,  119,  143,  149,  171,180,184,205-6,208,  239.  248,252.  260.286,290.291-2, 
297-8,  311,  319,  342,  345,  350,  371,  376,  381,  393,  424,  434,  448,  458,  473,  478, 
486,  488,  490,  494,  506,  546,  551,  552;  IV.  8,  27,  38,  45,  47,  54-5,  66,  73,  100, 
102,  113,  131,  147,  148,  150-1.  161,  162.  165.  167,  168,  173,  179,  185,  187, 
192.  197,  198,  232,  238,  245,  260,  297,  308,  342,  362,  364,  374-5,  385,  409-10, 
429,  439,  443,  465-6,  504,  505,  515,  520,  532,  537,  541. 

90  Compare  p.  52. 


56 

grammatically  than  the  verb  with  the  other  pair.     So  II.  172 

imbellem  avertis  Romanis  arcibus  Indum, 
in  view  of  the  separation  of  noun  and  adjective  may  rely 
somewhat  on  alliteration  to  bring  them  together.^^     III.  458 

cum  furit  atque  artus  depascitur  arida  febris 
shows  the  verb  and  subject  at  verse  ends  in  alliteration,  while 
the  attribute  of  the  subject  alliterates  with  the  object,  to 
which  it  really  belongs,  being  a  transferred  epithet.  The 
effect  is  a  very  closely  knit  sentence,  but  this  is  only  one 
case,  and  from  the  nature  of  the  discussion  even  a  good  many 
cases  could  hardly  prove  that  such  connection  was  meant  by 
the  author.  Sound  is  much  more  probably  the  cause  of  the 
alliteration  because  that  can  hardly  fail  to  catch  the  ear  of 
any  reader.  In  this  connection  it  is  well  to  recall  the  extent 
to  which  the  ancients  read  aloud.  In  addition  to  the  reci- 
tationes  that  had  become  so  burdensome  in  Juvenal's  time,^^ 
a  man  was  commonly  read  to  by  his  slave,^^  and  some  men, 
indeed,  were  very  particular  about  proper  pronunciation  on 
the  part  of  the  reader.^^  The  rapid  eye  reading  that  has 
become  customary  with  us  we  have  every  reason  to  believe 
played  a  much  smaller  part  in  ancient  times.  The  sound  of 
words,  when  it  was  beautiful,  was  surely  not  missed  by  the 
ancients.    Parallelism  of  construction  is  to  be  noticed  in  III.  208 

verbera  lenta  pati  et  duris  parere  lupatis 
between  the  alliterative  infinitives,  and  a  certain  rhetorical 
contrast  may  be  got  from  lenta  applied  to  the  yielding  close- 
lying  lash  and  lupatis,  the  spiked  curb  that  does  not  yield. 
The  more  obvious  coupling  would  have  joined  the  two  adjec- 
tives, but  the  definite  meaning  of  the  noun  really  incorporates 
an  adjective.     II.  41 

Maecenas,  pelagoque  volans  da  vela  patenti 

»'  Compare  I.  73,  193;  II.  41,  50,  268.  440;  IV.  45. 
KSat.  1.  1-14;  7.  39-42. 
»'  Norden,  Kunstprosa,  p.  6. 
«*  Pliny,  Epp.  3.  5.  12. 


57 


shows  grammatical  connection  between  noun  and  attribute, 
and  again  a  rhetorical  pregnancy  in  volans,  vela,  where  the 
thought  of  flying  draws  the  picture  of  the  ship's  sails  as  wings. 

In  I.  116  .   ,. 

exit  et  obducto  late  tenet  omnia  limo 

the  notion  of  the  sticky  pervasiveness  of  the  mud  may  be 
brought  out  more  fully  in  the  cross  alliteration  of  ohdudo  and 
omnia,  and  of  limo  and  late,  an  adverb  which  in  sense  is  really 
equivalent  to  an  adjective  modifying  omnia. 

All  such  interpretations,  however,  are  more  enticing  than 
convincing.  Pleasure  in  the  repetition  of  sound  is  a  surer 
basis  of  discussion,  and  the  only  one  in  the  great  majority 

of  cases. 

In  summing  up  Vergil's  use  of  alliteration  in  the  Georgics 
one  would  note  his  evident  pleasure  in  the  repetition  of  sound, 
especially  of  a,  s,  c,  p,  t  and  others  in  less  proportion;  his 
large  use  of  alliterative  phrases  of  two  words  and  of  alliterative 
pairs  of  words,  then  of  one  pair  together  echoed  again  by  a 
single  sound,  and  lastly,  his  very  moderate  use  of  three  con- 
secutive words  in  alliteration.  Several  sounds  interwoven, 
echoed  sufficiently,  however,  to  make  one  conscious  of  the 
play,  are  more  in  accordance  with  the  harmonious  and  rather 
subtle  art  of  the  poet  than  the  bolder  and  more  obvious  repe- 
titions. 

Closely  akin  to  the  "running"  of  an  initial  letter  is  the 
assonance  of  the  vowel  sounds  in  a  phrase,  or  sometimes 
throughout  a  whole  verse.  Such  are  mortalia  corda  (I.  123), 
annua  cura  (I.  216),  luminis  ignis  (I.  291),  aperta  serena 
(I.  393),  illi  etiam  exstindo  (increased  by  elision  I.  466), 
densissima  silva  (II.  17),  firmissima  vina  (11.  97),  vidor  in 
oris  (II.  171),  neve  flagella  (II.  299),  genitalia  semina  (II. 
324),  aviaria  bacis  (II.  430),  spirantia  signa  (III.  34),  virihus 
ignis  (III.  99),  armenta  per  herhas  (III.  162),  Cressamque 
pharetram  (III.  345),  horrebis  Hiberos  (III.  408),  nigrumque 


58 

bitumen  (III.  451),  dcsertaque  regna  (III.  476),  haustu  sparsus 
aquarum  (IV.  229),  nectar e  Vestam  (IV.  384),  portitor  Orci 
(IV.  502),  ig72obiUs  oil  (IV.  564). ^^ 

The  opening  verse  of  the  third  book  shows  in  addition  to 
the  alHterative  pairs  beginning  with  m  and  t,  e,  o,  a  as  the  only- 
vowels  of  the  line  until  the  last  syllable  is  reached 

Te  quoque,  magna  Pales,  et  te,  memorande,  canemua. 

So  in  IV.  13,  ahsint  et  picti  squalentia  terga  lacerti,  though 
there  is  no  alliteration,  the  vowels  a,  i,  e,  run  throughout  the 
line.  A  most  striking  case  of  the  use  of  light  vowels  repeatedly 
is  in  the  passage  IV.  465-6 

te,  dulcis  coniunx,  te  solo  in  litore  secum, 
te  veniente  die,  te  decedente  canebat. 

They  have  interspersed  in  the  first  verse  the  deeper  notes 
of  u  and  o,  but  the  second  shows  i  and  e  throughout  until  the 
last  word.  The  sharp  i  and  e  sounds  seem  peculiarly  insistent. 
Recall  the  verse  giving  the  frog's  cry,  I.  378 

et  veterem  in  limo  ranae  cecinere  querellam 
and  the  densissimus  imber  (I.  333),  which  makes  the  climax 
of  the  storm  scene.     The  very  name  Eurydicen  seems  to  have 
the  same  quality  in  it  as  it  occurs  in  IV.  525-7 

volveret,  Eurydicen  vox  ipsa  et  frigida  lingua 
a  miseram  Eurydicen!  anima  fugiente  vocabat: 
Eurydicen  toto  referebant  flumine  ripae. 

Discussing  the  effect  of  the  e  sound  run  Professor  Foster 
notes  few  cases  in  Propertius,^®  "owing,  doubtless,  rather  to 
the  paucity  of  long  e  sounds  than  to  a  dislike  of  the 
vowel,  for  i,  which  is  even   less   musical,  in  the  opinion  of 

»5  Compare  I.  88,  143,  220,  235,  249,  250,  263,  270,  289,  309,  333,  341. 
365,  376,  378,  419,  426,  493,  498;  II.  12,  46,  82,  84,  115,  144,  209,  236,  293, 
276,  303,  373,  431,  464;  III.  12,  151,  175,  229,  231,  260,  333,  336,  373,  377,  475, 
522;  IV.  17,  23,  82,  85,  90,  108,  115,  129,  135,  142,  174,  190,  212,  219,  249,  264, 
284,  296,  386,  404,  407,  438,  457,  469,  484,  499. 

»"  Foster,  op.  cit.,  p.  43. 


59 

the  ancients  (Diony.  Hal.  Comp.  Verb.  14,  ranks  the  vowels 
a  r?  CO  u  0>  as  in  our  own,  was  frequently  'run.' "  He  notes  three 
e  lines,  in  two  of  which  he  suggests  that  there  is  perhaps  an 
attempt  to  imitate  the  querulous  tones  of  the  speaker: 

I.  3.  43  interdum  leviter  mecum  desert  a  querebar 

1.  16.  23  me  mediae  noctes,  me  sidera  plena  iacentem 

2.  20.  29         tum  me  vel  tragicae  vexetis  Erinyes,  et  me. 

He  cites  some  twenty-three  lines  where  i  is  run,  and  calls 
them  only  a  sample.  Liidke  notes  for  Ovid  likewise  the  effect 
of  the  ae  and  e  sounds,^^  which  he  groups  together;  he  says 
they  are  used  in  expressions  of  sorrow,  mourning,  longing, 
uncertainty  and  fear.  He  notes  many  examples,  among  them 
M.  I.  707-8, 

Dumque  ibi  suspirat,  motos  in  harundine  ventos 
effecisse  sonum  tenuem  similemque  querenti. 

Onomatopoeia  is  usually  the  result  of  all  sorts  of  sound  corre- 
spondence and  repetition,  involving  the  consonants  within  a 
word  as  well  as  the  vowels  and  the  initial  sound.  In  addition 
to  the  running  of  the  e,  the  verse  of  Vergil  noted  above  (p.  58) 
as  descriptive  of  the  frog's  cry  is  onomatopoetic  as  well  in  the 
c,  qu  and  r  sounds.  Siliqua  quassante  (I.  74)  depends  both 
on  the  s  and  qu  and  upon  the  rise  in  sound  from  the  light 
vowel  i  to  the  heavy  a  and  the  fall  again  to  the  light  e,  to 
give  the  dry  fluttering  of  the  pea-pod  in  the  wind.  Lupis 
ululantihus  urbes  (I.  486)  owes  its  sound  correspondence  not 
merely  to  the  more  obvious  u  and  /,  but  in  some  part  to  the 
change  from  the  sharper  p  to  the  more  muffled  b  sound,  and 
its  dying  away  with  the  light  vowel. 

IV.  71-2         Martins  ille  aeris  rauci  canor  increpat,  et  vox 
auditur  fractos  sonitus  imitata  tubarum 

does  imitate  the  sound  of  the  trumpet  by  means  of  the  harsh- 
ness of  r  and  c,  and  the  preponderance  of  heavy  vowels,  aided 
by  the  unmusical  ending  et  vox^^  of  the  first  verse,  and  by  the 

»'  Liidke,  Uber  Lautmalerei  in  Ovids  Metamorphosen. 
08  See  footnote,  p.  70. 


60 

same  note  in  frados,  whence  the  verse  goes  on  more  musically 
with  only  an  echo  of  the  harshness  in  tubarum. 

I.  388-9         turn  cornLx  plena  pluvium  vocat  improba  voce 
et  sola  in  sicca  secum  spatiatur  harena 

is  probably  the  most  strikingly  onomatopoetic  passage  in  the 
whole  poem.  Again  heavy  vowels,  and  c,  t,  r,  give  a  hoarse- 
ness of  sound  softened  to  a  kind  of  music  by  the  yl,  while  the 
unusual  amount  of  alliteration  of  s  in  the  following  verse  and 
the  opening  spondees  correspond  to  the  measured  soft  crush 
of  the  crow's  feet  on  the  sand.     The  four  verses  I.  356-9 

continue  ventis  surgentibus  aut  freta  ponti 
incipiunt  agitata  tumescere  et  aridus  altis 
montibus  audiri  fragor,  aut  resonantia  longe 
litora  misceri  et  nemorum  increbrescere  murmur 

show  repetition  and  variation  both,  and  a  final  climax  of 
sound  in  the  heavy  m's  and  w's.  The  passage  is  descriptive 
of  sound;  five  different  noises  are  represented,  the  rising  wind, 
the  swell  of  the  sea,  the  dry  clatter  among  the  leaves  on  the 
mountains,  and  the  echo  of  shore  mingling  with  the  murmuring 
of  the  woods.  Ventis  surgentibus  has  an  assonance,  though  it 
is  not  so  striking;  t  is  the  repeated  sound  in  the  next  phrase, 
around  which  the  varying  and  indistinct  sounds  of  rising  w^aters 
cling;  while  the  alliterative  a  holds  the  following  phrase  to- 
gether. Then  the  liquids  and  nasals  are  used  for  the  mighty 
resulting  sounds  on  sea  and  woods,  the  inherent  weight  of 
sound  in  murmur  making  an  effective  climax.  To  be  noted 
also  is  the  -scere  or  -sceri,  which  has  something  of  the  light, 
rough  sound  of  sea  foam. 

There  are  verses  which,  though  not  onomatopoetic,  are 
to  be  noted  for  their  music.     I.  28 

accipiat  cingens  materna  tempora  myrto 

ows  its  melody,  perhaps,  to  the  vowel  sequence,  in  which  a 
remains  through  the  verse,  with  repeated  i,  then  e,  then  o, 


61 

and  to  the  varying  positions  of  m  and  t  in  the  last  three  words. 

III.  338 

litoraque  alcyonen  resonant  acalanthida  dumi 

has  more  liquids  than  most  verses,  and  the  first  word  shows 
all  the  vowels  that  are  played  on  throughout  the  rest  of  the 
verse,  which  ends  with  the  light  i  with  which  it  began.  To  a 
taste  sensitive  to  these  subtler  and  less  obvious  harmonies  is 
due  the  elusive  music  of  Vergil's  verse. 

The  union  of  repetition  for  sound's  sake  and  for  rhetorical 
balance  and  connection  is  met  in  the  use  of  the  same  stem,  or 
of  the  same  ending  and  enclitic,  or  of  the  same  word  twice  or 
more.     The  same  stem  is  repeated  in 

I.  463  sol  tibi  signa  dabit.     Solem  quis  dicere  falsum 

II.  275  densa  sere:  in  denso  non  segnior  ubere  Bacchus 

IV.  6  in  tenui  labor;  at  tenuis  non  gloria,  si  quem^^  .  .  . 

The  repetition  of  an  ending  and  the  enclitic  -que,  or  of  the 
enclitic  alone  is  much  in  favor  and  cases  are  numerous: 

I.  153  lappaeque  tribolique  interque  nitentia  culta 

I.  279  Coeumque  lapetumque  creat  saevumque  Typhoea 

II.  494  Panaque  Silvanumque  senem  Nymphasque  sorores 

III.  242  Omne  adeo  genus  in  terris  hominumque  ferarumque 

(where  the  -que  makes  the  verse  hypermetric).^"" 

When  whole  words  are  repeated  they  are  oftenest  con- 
junctions, adverbs  and  numerals.  In  the  case  of  conjunctions 
rhetorical  balance  is  usually  the  most  prominent  result,  but 
considerations  of  sound  must  enter  in;  at  least,  the  combi- 
nation must  not  have  been  unpleasant  to  the  poet's  ear. 
Repetition  of  aut,  et,  atque,  cum,  seu  or  sive,  nee  or  neque  are 
frequent.^°^  Likewise  adverbs,  as  non,  etiam,  iamque,  ante, 
magis,  nunc,  turn,  semper,  bis,  hinc  are  repeated  rather  freely 

99  Compare  I.  190,  419;  II.  61,  109,  327;  III.  112,  118,  393;  IV.  209,  215. 

"o  Compare  I.  118,  253,  352,  371,  458,  470;  II.  21,  391,  399,  456,  470,  509; 
III.  108,  344,  345,  451,  473,  555;  IV.  182,  222,  318,  336,  367,  370,  442. 

"1  Compare  I.  314,  332,  370;  II.  100,  196,  298-9,  308,  348,  435,  516-7;  III, 
49-50,  110,  133,  211,  212,  252,  353,  358,  560;  IV.  5,  25,  33,  84-5,  167,  245-6, 
257-8,  401-2. 


62 

for  balance  or  emphasis.^°2  Qf  words  of  more  natural  strength 
there  are  also  cases  of  repetition,  nouns  and  adjectives  rather 
than  verbs.  lurat  (II.  437-8)  and  dant  (II.  442)  are  the  only 
verb  forms  that  occur  in  exact  repetition.  Densa  and  demet 
(I.  419)  and  relatum  and  referet  (I.  458)  involve  repetitions 
of  stem.  Adjectives  of  size  and  number  occur  {centum,  II. 
43,  IV.  383;  magna,  II.  173-4,  327;  summa,  11.  300;  omnibus, 
II.  61,  109,  IV.  184;  quattuor,  IV.  297-8;  ambae,  IV.  341-2; 
tantus.  III.  112),  but  few  of  quality  (nudus,  I.  299;  densa, 
II.  275;  aequus.  III.  118;  tennis,  IV.  6;  dulcia,  IV.  101). 
Repetition  of  a  noun  appears  occasionally,  as  the  node 
of  I.  289  followed  by  another  case  of  the  same  word  in 
the  next  verse;  compare  also  ventus,  vento  of  I.  431.     I.  297-8 

at  rubicunda  Ceres  medio  succiditur  aestu, 
et  medio  tostas  aestu  terit  area  fruges 

shows  both  adjective  and  noun  repeated,  but  they  are  separ- 
ated in  each  verse.^°^ 

There  remain  a  few  special  cases  of  repetition  to  be  dis- 
cussed. In  I.  339-49  the  proper  name  Ceres  is  repeated  in 
some  form  four  times  to  emphasize  the  thought  that  the 
religious  rites  prescribed  are  all  in  her  honor.  In  the  long 
narration  of  weather  signs  (I.  351-471)  there  occur  signis 
(351),  signo  (354),  signis  (394),  sigiia  dabit  (439),  sigria  dabit 
(463),  signa  dabunt  (471),  marking  the  unity  of  the  passage 
in  the  diversity  of  the  description.  Repetition  of  end  sound 
gains  some  such  unifying  effect  in  the  generalizing  summary  of 
the  invocation  to  the  gods  (I.  19-24);  the  verses  begin  with 
dique  deaeque,  quique,  quique,  tuque.  So  with  the  passage 
containing  the  rather  unusual  future  imperative  (II.  408-10), 
the  identical  heavy  ending  gives  a  heightened  force  to  the 

iM  Compare  I,  48.  267,  305-8,  334,  341-2,  386;  II.  42-3,  145-6,  150,  200, 
293,  410-11,  444,  495,  514-515,  536;  III.  69-70,  189,  193-4,  248-9,  294,  308, 
356,  371,  396,  520-1;  IV.  187,  306,  311,  411-2. 

i»3  Compare  I.  281-2  Ossam  Ossae;  II.  323-4  ver  vere;  338  ver  ver;  III. 
280-2  hippomanes;  III.  410  canibus. 


63 

verbs  that  balances  the  emphasis  gained  for  the  adjectives 
by  position  and  repetition: 

primus  humum  fodito,  primus  devecta  cremate 
sarment  a,  et  vallos  primus  sub  tecta  ref erto ; 
postremus  metito.  > 

The  repetition  of  ambae  in  IV.  341-2 

Clioque  et  Beroe  soror,  Oceanitides  ambae, 
ambae  auro,  pictis  incinctae  pellibus  ambae 

seems  to  be  purely  for  euphonic  reasons,  since  there  is  nothing 
known  about  the  history  of  Clio  and  Beroe  that  would  call  for 
their  prominence  in  the  group,  nor  for  the  great  emphasis 
upon  their  sistership  and  the  fact  that  their  ornaments  were 
alike.  Love  of  alliteration  must  have  led  the  poet  in  this 
verse.  The  next  case  of  repetition  (I.  406-9)  leads  us  to  the 
question  of  rhyming  verses,  the  couplet  and  the  quatrain, 
and  had  best  be  discussed  after  the  simpler  cases  of  rhyme  and 
couplet. 

In  his  study  of  Propertius  Professor  B.  O.  Foster^°^  calls 
attention  to  the  theory  of  Eichner^"^  regarding  the  fourfold 
division  of  the  elegiac  distich  and  the  use  of  homoeoteleuton 
to  emphasize  the  structure.  He  finds  in  these  poets  all  the 
rhyme-schemes  possible  to  a  four-line  stanza.  For  Propertius 
Professor  Foster  finds  some  1130  rhymed  verses  (28%  of  the 
whole)  in  books  I-IV,  529  of  which  are  hexameters,  where 
the  rhyme  occurs  between  the  penthemimeral  caesura  and 
the  verse-end.  Pentameters  are  likewise  made  to  rhyme 
in  even  more  cases,  and  frequently  the  words  at  the  caesura 
rhyme  with  each  other,  while  the  verse-ends  do  the  same; 
or  the  word  at  the  second  caesura  rhymes  with  the  first  verse- 
end,  and  the  word  at  the  first  caesura  rhymes  with  the 
close  of  the  second  verse.  Professor  Foster  considers  as 
rhyming  the  same  vowel  sounds,  or  vowel  and  final  consonant 

i«<  Op.  cit.,  pp.  32-41. 

105  Bemerkungen  iiber  den  metrischen  und  rhythmischen  Bau,  sowieiiber  den 
Gebrauch  der  Homoeoteleuta  in  den  Distichen  des  CatuU,  Tibull,  Properz  und 
Ovid,  Gnesen,  1875. 


64 

if  the  word  ends  in  a  consonant,  regardless  of  the  initial  con- 
sonant of  the  syllable.  E.  Wolfflin^"^  lays  down  the  con- 
dition that  two  rhyming  words  must  have  an  identity  of  one 
letter  or  one  syllable  of  the  stem  in  addition  to  the  ending 
and  termination.  He  rejects  even  two  infinitives  in  -escere. 
In  English  verse,  the  end-rhyme  is  said  to  involve  the  princi- 
pally stressed  vowel  in  the  rhyming  word  and  all  that  follows 
that  vowel. ^°^  As  regards  the  rhyme  between  the  syllable 
at  the  penthemimeral  caesura  and  at  the  end  of  the  hexameter, 
the  very  nature  of  the  verse  precludes  so  strict  a  condition, 
for  the  only  possibility  is  between  a  stressed  and  an  unstressed 
syllable.  I  have,  then,  followed  Professor  Foster's  greater 
license.^°^ 

In  the  Georgics  Vergil  makes  but  slight  use  of  the  rhyming 
verse  or  the  more  elaborate  distichs  and  quatrains.  When 
rhyme  between  caesura  and  verse-end  is  got  by  means  of 
nouns  and  attributes  in  agreement,  one  is  tempted  to  call  it 
accidental,  due  to  considerations  of  position  in  prominent 
places  rather  than  to  sound;  but  again  we  may  say  that  it  was 
not  looked  upon  as  a  blemish,  or  so  sensitive  an  ear  as  Vergil's 
w^ould  never  have  allowed  it.  Of  rhyme  between  the  syllable 
at  the  penthemimeral  caesura  and  that  at  the  verse-end  there 
are  139  instances  in  the  whole  poem  (in  Book  I,  36;  II,  51; 

III,  31;  IV,  21).  Most  numerous  of  these  are  the  cases  of 
a  noun  and  attribute  in  agreement,  as 

IV.  41  et  visco  Phrygiae  servant  pice  lentius  Idae 
III.  545  vipera  et  attoniti  squamis  astantibus  hydri 
III.  195  aequora  vix  summa  vestigia  ponat  harena 
III.  166  ac  primum  laxos  tenui  de  vimine  circlos.'"^ 

"*  Der  Reim  im  Lateinischen,  Archiv  fur  lateinische  lexicographic,  I , 
pp.  351-2. 

"'  R.  M.  Alden.  English  Verse,  p.  121. 

"8  So  Wilhelm  Grimm  understood  rhyme  in  his  Geschichte  des  Reims, 
Abhandl.  der  Berl.  Akad.  d.  Wiss.  1851,  S.  627ff.  So  Norden  also  in  Antike 
Kunstprosa,  Anhang  I,  Die  Geschichte  des  Reims. 

'»»  Compare  I.  15,  59,  78,  90,  96,  111,  116,  125.  155,  162,  170,  207,  218,  230, 


65 

Next  in  frequency  is  the  rhyme  between  two  verbs  so  placed, 
as, 

I.  202  remigiis  subigit,  si  bracchia  forte  remisit 

I.  479  (infandum) ;  sistunt  amnes  terraeque  dehiscunt 

II.  408  primus  humum  fodito,  primus  devecta  cremato 

III.  126  florentesque  secant  herbas  fluviosque  ministrant."" 

With  difference  of  quantity  there  is  rhyme  between  nomi- 
natives and  ablatives  singular  of  the  first  declension,  or 
ablatives  and  neuter  plurals,  and  datives  or  ablatives  plural 
of  the  first  and  second  declensions  give  rhyme  with  nominatives 
and  accusatives  plural  in  -is  of  the  third  declension,  or, 
again,  involving  difference  of  quantity,  with  nominatives  or 
genitives  singular. 
I.  191  at  si  luxuria  foliorum  exuberat  umbra 

I.  328  ipse  pater  media  nimborum  in  nocte  corusca 

II.  53  nee  non  et  sterilis  quae  stirpibus  exit  ab  imis 

(Compare  11.  13,  27,  320;  III.  493.) 

Nouns  or  adjectives  in  parallel  construction  rhyme,  as, 

I.  470  obscenaeque  canes  importunaeque  volucres 

II.  88  Crustumiis  Syriisque  piris  gravibusque  volaemis 
II.  115  Eoasque  domos  Arabum  pictosque  Gelonos  .  .  . 

(Compare  II.  101,  169,  293,  444;  III.  315.) 

There  are  a  few  examples  of  words  not  in  agreement  nor  in 
parallel  construction,  as, 

I.  56  gramina.     Nonne  vides  croceos  ut  Tmolus  odores 

I.  246  Arctos  Oceani  metuentis  aequore  tingi 

I.  380  angustum  formica  terens  iter,  et  bibit  ingens  (at  hepthemimeral 

caesura,  but  noticeable) 

I.  413  inter  se  in  foliis  strepitant,  iuvat  imbribus  actis 

II.  158         an  mare  quod  supra  memorem,  quodque  adluit  infra 

IV.  246       aut  durum  tiniae  genus,  aut  invisa  Minervae 
IV.  461        implerunt  montes;  flerunt  Rhodopeiae  arces. 

250,  266,  273,  351,  360,  389,  394,  405,  427,  450,  487,  492,  500,  502;  II.  31,  40, 
54,  66,  77,  96,  106,  118,  124,  139,  142,  158,  163,  164,  171,  183,  189,  197,  199,  206, 
215,  225,  237,  258,  261,  298,  313,  364,  385,  415,  419,  425,  445, 465, 466, 522, 537; 

III.  7,  12,  21,  25,  41,  49,  166,  195,  271,  310,  321,  326,  380,  383,  389,  395,  398, 
399,  457,  487,  492,  543,  544,  545;  IV.  41,  42,  170,  235,  287,  289,  293,  377,  389, 
414,  422,  429,  430,  479,  506,  518,  522,  538,  550. 

"»  Compare  I.  182;  II.  422;  III.  270,  363,  417. 


66 

Of  verses  rhyming  in  couplets  there  are  75,  of  which  39  have 
the  thought  broken  more  or  less  markedly  before  the  end  of 
the  second  verse,  as, 

I.  368-9      sacpe  levem  paleam  et  frondes  volitare  caducas 

aut  summa  nantis  in  aqua  conludere  plumas, 
449-50         tam  multa  in  tectis  crepitans  salit  horrida  grando 

hoc  etiam,  emenso  cum  iam  decedit  Olympo  .  .  . 

In  the  latter  case  the  two  verses  belong  to  different  sentences."^ 
There  are  couplets,  however,  which  do  express  one  thought  or 
an  integral  part  of  a  thought,  as, 

I.  436-7      votaque  servati  solvent  in  litore  nautae 

Glauco  et  Panopeae  et  Inoo  Melicertae. 

II.  479-80  unde  tremor  terris,  qua  vi  maria  alta  tumescant 

obicibus  ruptis  rursusque  in  se  ipsa  residant 
IV.  504-5    quid  faceret?  quo  se  rapta  bis  coniuge  ferret? 

quo  fletu  Manis,  quae  numina  voce  moveret? 
IV.  215-6    ille  operum  custos,  ilium  admirantur  et  omnes 

circumstant  fremitu  denso  stipantque  frequentes."^ 

Of  longer  rhyming  series  there  are  cases  of  three  verses,  two 
rhymed  enclosing  an  unrhymed,  as, 

I.  319-21     quae  gravidam  late  segetem  ab  radicibus  imis 
sublimem  expulsam  eruerent;  ita  turbine  nigro 
ferret  hiems  culmumque  levem  stipulasque  volantis, 

where  the  rhyme  is  of  the  slightest.     In  I.  419-21 

denset  erat  quae  rara  modo,  et  quae  densa  relaxat, 
vertuntur  species  animorum,  et  pectora  motus 
nunc  alios,  alios  dum  nubila  ventus  agebat, 
concipiunt  .  .  . 

"1  Compare  I.  40-1,  368-9,  344-5,  449-50,  476-7,  50O-1;  II.  94-5,  168-9, 
218-9,  293-4,  398-9,  439-40,  500-1,  506-7;  III.  11-12,  68-9,  99-100,  248-9, 
384-5,  399-400,  408-9,  488-9,  527-8,  537-8;  IV.  9-10,  15-6,  34-5,  134-5,  165-6, 
222-3,  230-1,  254-5,  266-7,  275-6,  280-1,  309-10,  484-5,  498-9,  518-9. 

'12  Compare  II.  33-34,  45-6,  91-2,  101-2,  107-8,  129-30,  228-9,  343-4, 
(hypermetric  -que  added),  360-1,  371-2,  483-4;  III.  58-9,  60-1,  68-9,  127-8, 
168-9,  187-8,  300-1,  448-9;  verses  411-2,  427-8,  505-6,  531-2,  show  rhyme,  but 
the  phrase  is  incomplete  at  the  end  of  the  second  verse;  IV.  118-9,  237-8, 
292-1,  468-9,  492-3,  545-6.  53-4  is  incomplete.  Verses  262-3  and  458-9 
show  difTerence  of  quantity. 


67 

the  thought  runs  so  closely  over  into  422  that  the  effect  is 

almost  lost. 

II.  243-5  shows  a  better  case: 

hue  ager  ille  malus  dulcesque  a  fontibus  undae 
ad  plenum  calcentur:  aqua  eluctabitur  omnia 
scilicet  et  grandes  ibunt  per  vimina  guttae. 

(Compare  II.  461-3,  III.  37-9,  445-7.) 
Four  verses  with  every  other  one  rhymed  are  found,  as  also 

two  sets  of  rhymes  (abba,  or  abab,  or  aabb  schemes)  and  two 

rhymed  verses  enclosing  two  unrhymed  ones. 

I.  1-4  Quid  facial  laetas  segetes,  quo  sidere  terram 

vertere,  Maecenas,  ulmisque  adiungere  vitis 
conveniat,  quae  cura  boum,  qui  cultus  habendo 
sit  pecori,  apibus  quanta  experientia  parcis, 

show  verses  two  and  four  rhymed.     14-17  is  of  the  abba  type: 
Neptune;  et  cultor  nemorum,  cui  pinguia  Ceae 
ter  centum  nivei  tondent  dumeta  iuvenci; 
ipse  nemus  linquens  patrium  saltusque  Lycaei 
Pan,  ovium  custos,  tua  si  tibi  Maenala  curae. 

I.  406-9, 

quacumque  ilia  levem  fugiens  secat  aethera  pennis, 
ecce  inimicus  atrox  magno  stridore  per  auras 
insequitur  Nisus;  qua  se  fert  Nisus  ad  auras, 
ilia  levem  fugiens  raptim  secat  aethera  pennis. 

is  surely  to  be  accounted  for  by  love  of  repetition  (the  amount 
of  repetition  here  is  unusual)  rather  than  by  desire  to  secure 
rhyme.  The  identity  of  the  rhyming  verse-ends  destroys 
the  peculiar  nature  of  rhyme.  The  two  preceding  verses, 
which  outline  the  story,  are  both  marked  by  alliteration  and 
one  shows  rhyme  between  purpurea  and  capillo.  Within  the 
quatrain  quacumque  is  repeated  in  qua,  Nisus  twice  in  the 
same  verse,  and  the  last  verse  is  an  exact  repetition  of  the 
first  except  for  one  word.  The  effect  of  the  repetition  here  is 
markedly  rhetorical,  and  while  the  passage  is  the  most  striking 
quatrain  of  the  poem,  its  effectiveness  is  not  due  to  rhyme."^ 

1"  These  four  lines  conclude  the  Ciris.     If  Vergil  was  the  author  of  that  poem , 
his  use  of  the  verse  here  is  parallel  to  his  quotation  of  the  first  verse  of  the  first 


68 

We  may  now  note  repetition  through  many  verses  of 
end-sounds  more  or  less  approaching  regularity,"^  but  the 
terminations  of  the  Latin  language  would  rather  necessitate 
this,  and  when  the  passages  are  examined  the  thought  phrasing 
is  so  frequently  found  to  conflict  with  any  rhyming  scheme 
that  the  student  is  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  Vergil's  use 
of  rhyme,  as  it  is  now  understood,  or  as  it  is  discernible  in 
Propertius  for  instance,  is  of  the  smallest.  Homoeoteleuton 
within  shorter  phrases  he  does  use,  seen  notably  in  the  repe- 
tition of  the  same  ending  emphasized  by  the  enclitic  -que,  but 
any  division  of  his  hexameters  by  means  of  rhyme  seems  care- 
fully avoided. 

Eclogue  at  the  end  of  the  Georgics.  If  someone  else  wrote  the  Ciris,  the  quo- 
tation therein  is  a  compliment  to  Vergil,  or  an  attempt  to  mark  the  poem  as  his. 

For  other  unconvincing  cases  of  the  quatrain  compare  I.  204-7,  the  unrhymed 
verses  marked  by  alliteration,  221-4,  415-8,  505-8;  II.  5-8,  10-13,  16-19,  35-8, 
49-52,  69-72,  110-13,  177-80,  362-5  incomplete,  388-91  incomplete;  III. 
323-6; IV.  108-11,  112-15,  329-32,  407-10.  563-6. 

"« Compare  I.  483-8;  II.  408-15;  III.  30-6;  IV.  363-79. 


IV 

Analysis  of  Special  Passages 

A  few  striking  passages  have  been  chosen,  the  analysis  of 
which  shows  how  the  various  stylistic  means  that  have  been 
under  discussion  are  interwoven  in  any  one  passage  for  the 
expression  of  the  thought. 
I.  311-34: 

Quid  tempestates  autumni  et  sidera  dicam, 
atque,  ubi  iam  breviorque  dies  et  moUior  aestas, 
quae  vigilanda  viris?  vel  cum  ruit  imbriferum  ver, 
spicea  iam  campis  cum  messis  inhorruit  et  cum 
frumenta  in  viridi  stipula  lactentia  turgent? 
saepe  ego,  cum  flavis  messorem  induceret  arvis 
agricola  et  fragili  iam  stringeret  hordea  culmo, 
omnia  ventorum  concurrere  proelia  vidi, 
quae  gravidam  late  segetem  ab  radicibus  imis 
sublimem  expulsam  eruerent;  ita  turbine  nigro 
ferret  hiems  culmumque  levem  stipulasque  volantis. 
saepe  etiam  immensum  caelo  venit  agmen  aquarum 
et  foedam  glomerant  tempestatem  imbribus  atris 
coUectae  ex  alto  nubes;  ruit  arduus  aether, 
et  pluvia  ingenti  sata  laeta  boumque  labores 
diluit ;  implentiu-  fossae  et  cava  fiumina  crescunt 
cum  sonitu  fervetque  fretis  spirantibus  aequor. 
ipse  pater  media  nimborum  in  nocte  corusca 
fulmina  molitur  dextra:  quo  maxima  motu 
terra  tremit;  fugere  ferae  et  mortalia  corda 
per  gentis  humilis  stravit  pavor:  ille  flagranti 
aut  Athon  aut  Rhodopen  aut  alta  Ceraunia  telo 
deicit;  ingeminant  Austri  et  densissimus  imber: 
nunc  nemora  ingenti  vento,  nunc  litora  plangunt. 

After  the  pleasures  of  the  winter  described  in  the  preceding 
verses,  pleasures  that  yet,  on  the  lips  of  an  Italian,  take  on  a 
rather  doubtful  tone  in  the  words  (310) 

cum  nix  alta  iacet,  glaciem  cum  flumina  trudunt, 


70 

the  passage  opens  very  quietly  with  autumn  weather, 
the  shortened  days,  the  less  oppressive  heat;  no  note  of 
hardship  is  struck,  unless  it  be  in  vigilanda,  in  which  a 
certain  suggestion  of  anxiety  is  usually  inherent.  But  the 
latter  half  of  the  verse  brings  disaster  in  a  rush  in  ruit,  the 
weighty  imbrifennn  and  the  monosyllable  ver,  an  ending 
unusual  enough  metrically  to  give  pointed  force  to  the  ominous 
danger  that  threatens.^^^  Two  lines  give  the  picture  of  the 
tasseled  grain,  the  kernels  all  swollen  with  their  rich  milk 
among  the  green  blades,  and  then  the  eye  witness  of  the 
storm  {vidi,  318)  at  the  moment  of  reaping,  the  stalks  ready 
to  break,  tells  of  the  onrush  of  the  battle  of  the  winds,  which 
tears  the  teeming  crops  from  their  very  roots  and  tosses  them 
on  high.  The  position  of  the  words  in  319-20  is  most  telling 
for  the  effect  of  the  passage.  Gravidam  late  segetem  presents 
a  broad  expanse  of  heavily  laden  stalks;  then  the  contrast 
between  ab  radicihus  imis  and  suhlimem  marks  the  confusion 
which  reaches  its  height  in  the  alliterative  expulsam  eruerent. 
Into  the  battle  of  the  winds  come  the  auxiliary  forces  of  the 
rain,  one  mighty  marching  line,  and  the  clouds  massed  aloft 

I's  A.  G.  Harkness,  The  Final  Monosyllable  in  Latin  Prose  and  Poetry, 
A.  J.  P.  31,  pp.  154-74,  discusses  the  relation  of  the  rhythm  caused  by  final 
monosyllables  to  the  thought.  He  finds  that  it  yields  a  different  effect  in  dif- 
ferent authors,  and  concludes  that  its  avoidance  in  hexameter  (and  he  states  a 
steadily  decreasing  use  of  it)  is  due  to  the  relation  of  accent  and  ictus.  Con- 
junctions and  words  of  one  syllable  directly  preceded  by  another  monosyllable  are 
most  common.  In  the  Georgics  there  are  22  final  monosyllables,  7  cases  of  est 
in  elision  with  the  preceding  word,  5  cases  of  et  or  nee  with  cum  or  dum\  si  quis, 
quae  sint,  aut  hos,  omniaque  in  se,  et  vox,  said  5  where  the  monosyllable  is  pre- 
ceded by  a  longer  word,  I.  181,  247,  313 ;  II.  321 ;  III.  255.  In  every  one  of  these 
there  is  a  definite  effect  discernible.  1. 181  exiguus  mus  calls  to  mind  the  ridiculus 
mus  of  Horace  (A.  P.  139),  with  similar  comic  touch;  in  247  intempesta  silet  nox 
gives  a  pause  to  the  verse  that  well  prolongs  the  calm  and  silent  darkness; 
in  II.  321  cum  rapidus  Sol  checks  the  rushing  course  of  the  sun  before  it  enters 
winter's  domain;  in  III.  255  exacuit  sus  gives  the  same  rhythm  as  the  verse  under 
discussion  and  through  ruit  shows  fierce  and  broken  action,  not  unlike  the 
stormy  spring  of  I.  313;  in  IV.  71  et  vox,  in  the  onomatopoetic  line  giving  the 
sound  of  the  trumpet,  represents  likewise  harsh  and  broken  sound. 


71 

bear  weather  foul  with  darkening  rain.  Down  crashes  the 
mighty  firmament  on  high,  and  with  its  measureless  waters 
washes  away  the  standing  grain  in  all  its  luxuriance,  the 
grain  for  which  the  oxen  have  suffered  so  much  labor.  The 
alliteration  of  agmen  aquarum  and  of  arduus  aether  gives  a 
certain  effect  of  unity  or  organization  that  fits  well  the  mili- 
tary metaphor,  and  the  sata  laeta  boumque  labores  adds  a 
touch  of  pathos  to  the  conquest.  Dihiit,  with  its  prominent 
place  in  the  verse  and  the  pause  following  it,  brings  one  up 
blankly  against  absolute  ruin.  In  the  same  verse  begin 
the  rapid  movement  and  the  fretful  sounds  of  the  rush  of  the 
water, 

implentur  fossae  et  cava  flumina  crescunt 
cum  sonitu  fervetque  fretis  spirantibus  aequor, 

the  rough /'s  and  hard  c's  repeating  themselves  and  gathering 
in  the  hissing  s's  of  the  next  verse  in  a  real  ebullition  of  sound. 
As  so  often  after  a  passage  of  sound,  so  here  there  comes  a 
flashing  picture  of  the  Father  himself,  the  commander  of  the 
forces,  in  the  midst  of  the  blackness  of  night  hurling  the 
gleaming  bolt.  Following  this  are  short  disconnected  sen- 
tences, running  from  one  verse  into  the  next,  and  breaking  a 
verse  with  a  long  pause,  to  depict  the  trembling  of  the  earth, 
the  flight,  the  humbling  fear  of  beast  and  man— the  god  above 
hurling  down  earth's  highest  strongholds  with  burning  missile 
— the  doubled  groaning  of  the  winds  and  the  driving  downpour 
of  the  rain,  the  mourning  of  the  forests  and  the  shores. 

In  328  node  corusca  shows  a  placing  of  words  on  the  principle 
of  contrast  to  heighten  the  picture,  and  in  the  sentences  that 
follow  Vergil's  fondness  for  the  short  alliterative  phrase  and 
the  no  less  musical  assonance  is  plain.  Note,  for  alliteration, 
maxima  motu,  terra  tremit,  fugere  ferae,  and,  for  assonance, 
mortalia  cor  da.  In  ille  flagranti  aut  Athon  aut  Rhodopen  aut 
alta  Ceraunia  telo  deicit  the  adjective  beside  ille  covers  the 
presence  of  the  god,  too  august  for  the  cowering  eyes  below, 


72 

with  the  pure  flame  of  awe,  and  the  deferring  of  ielo  to  the 
end  of  the  sonorous  line  that  crowds  together  earth's  strongest 
bulwarks,  a  line  as  mighty  in  sound  as  in  sense,  followed  by 
deicit,  which  begins  the  next  verse,  marks  the  climax  of  might 
and  the  climax  of  ruin  and  despair  for  the  mortal  hearts  below. 
There  only  remains  to  tell  the  tears  and  the  mourning  of 
nature.  The  assonant  densissimus  imher  has  in  it  from  its 
crowded  light  vowels  and  its  sharp  s's,  the  fierceness  and  the 
clatter  of  the  rain,  while  the  repeated  nasals  of  nunc,  nemora, 
nunc,  and  the  less  obtrusive  but  still  effective  ones  in  ingenti, 
vento,  plangunt  are  like  a  minor  note  of  agony. 

The  passage  as  a  whole  shows  excellently  Vergil's  mastery 
of  his  tools.  Rhetorical  figures  there  are — metaphors  in 
lactentia  frumenta  and  gravidam  segetem;  the  more  sustained 
one  of  the  battle  of  the  storm,  concurrere  proelia,  followed  by 
the  agmen  aquarum,  and  later  by  ipse  pater,  the  divine  mind 
behind  all  this  seeming  violence  and  confusion;  and  the  long 
wail  of  plangunt  that  ends  the  passage:  anaphora  with  its 
consequent  balance  in  cum  messis  inhorruit  et  cum  frumenta 
in  viridi  stipula  lactentia  turgent,  in  aut,  aut,  aut,  strengthened 
by  alliteration  with  alta,  and  in  nunc  of  the  last  verse :  asyndeton 
where  the  movement  becomes  too  rapid  for  connectives,  as, 
ruit  ardiius  aether,  implentur  fossae,  fugere  ferae,  ille  flagranti, 
ingeminant  austri.  Then  euphonic  means  are  seized  upon  to 
emphasize,  to  connect,  to  give  weight,  to  give  movement, 
and  to  give  sound,  amounting  to  onomatopoeia  in  lines  326-7 
and  in  densissimus  imher  and  the  verse  that  follows  it.  A 
noun  borrows  the  reflected  force  of  an  adjective  that  belongs 
to  another  word  by  having  a  place  beside  it,  as  in  immensum 
caelo,  or  in  maxima  motu,  or  ille  flagranti,  or  by  separation  of 
noun  and  attribute  {flagranti  .  .  .  telo)  the  heaviest  verse 
of  the  passage  is  enveloped  in  flame  before  the  crash,  and  twice 
the  verb  is  deferred  to  open  a  new  verse  followed  by  a  pause 
of  absolute  powerlessness. 


73 


II.  458-74: 


O  fortunatos  nimium,  sua  si  bona  norint, 
agricolas!  quibus  ipse  procul  discordibus  armis 
fundit  humo  facilem  victum  iustissima  tellus; 
si  non  ingentem  foribus  domus  alta  superbis 
mane  salutantum  totis  vomit  aedibus  undam, 
nee  varios  inhiant  pulchra  testudine  postis 
inlusasque  auro  vestis  Ephyreiaque  aera, 
alba  neque  Assyrio  fucatur  lana  veneno, 
nee  easia  liquid!  corrumpitur  usus  olivi; 
at  seeura  quies  et  nescia  fallere  vita, 
dives  opum  variarum,  at  latis  otia  fundis 
(speluncae  vivique  lacus  et  frigida  Tempe 
mugitusque  boum  mollesque  sub  arbore  somni) 
non  absunt;  illic  saltus  ac  lustra  ferarum, 
et  patiens  operum  exiguoque  adsueta  inventus, 
sacra  deum  sanctique  patres;  extrema  per  illos 
lustitia  exeedens  terris  vestigia  fecit. 

As  a  contrast  to  the  more  impassioned  passage  which  describes 
the  storm,  an  anal^^sis  of  the  calmer  eulogy  of  country  Hfe 
must  be  made  to  see  how  Vergil  adapts  the  use  of  his  tools  to 
the  effective  expression  of  his  thought.  Here  the  passage 
opens  with  an  exclamation,  broken  by  a  clause  which  marks 
the  higher  knowledge  of  the  vates,  and  at  the  same  time  offers 
the  occasion  for  the  enumeration  of  blessings  which  is  to 
follow.  In  quibus  ipsa  there  are  two  pronouns  side  by  side 
in  accordance  with  what  Leo  calls  the  tendency  of  the  same 
parts  of  speech  toward  each  other,"^  which  tendency,  however, 
has  root  within  the  thought,  and  here  presents  the  farmers  and 
straightway  in  contrast  the  mistress"^  who  pours  out  from 
the  ground  their  living,  her  character  (iustissima)  and  then 
her  identity  appearing  in  the  last  two  words  of  the  verse. 
From  the  beginning  of  this  passage  to  the  end  of  the  book 
there  is  an  unusual  amount  of  contrast,   between  country 

115  Leo,  op.  cit.,  p.  432.     See  above,  pp.  37,  47. 

"^  Compare  the  frequent  use  of  ipse,  ipsa  in  thia  sense,  e.  g.  in  Plant.  Cas.  790 
ego  eo  quo  me  ipsa  misit;  Catull.  3.  7.  (see  Munro,  Criticisms  and  Elucidations 
of  Catullus,  p.  105);  Cic.  N.  D.  1.  5.  10  ipse  dixit. 


74 

naturalness  and  city  artificiality,  between  the  philosophic 
poet  and  the  rustic  singer,  between  the  complex  life  of  the 
statesman  and  the  simple  round  of  the  farmer's  labors.  In 
verse  461  this  contrast  is  begun  and  the  intricate  interweaving 
of  words  marks  the  elaboration,  where  the  adjectives  and 
substantives  (denoted  by  a,  a'  —  b,  b'  etc.)  may  be  thus 
represented,  ab'c'cbdd'a'.  All  the  adjectives  here 
signify  size,  while  brilliancy  of  color  and  beauty  find  their 
place  in  the  next  verse,  and  the  qualifying  attributes  grow 
less  striking  in  alba  lana  and  liquidi  olivi.  There  is  also  the 
use  of  the  localizing  epithet  in  Ephyreiacpie  aera  and  Assyrio 
teneno,  one  by  its  unusualness  and  the  other  by  its  distance 
giving  the  desired  effect  of  expensive  elegance.  The  dis- 
paraging touch  is  given  in  veneno  (the  pure  white  wool  is 
represented  as  poisoned  by  the  purple)  and  in  corrumpitnr, 
which  denotes  the  effect  of  the  costly  eastern  perfume^^^  on 
the  pure  smooth-flowing  oil. 

There  has  been  but  little  alliteration  so  far,  two  pairs  in 
the  first  verse,  a  single  initial  repetition  each  in  the  next 
three,  a  single  echo  of  three  sounds  in  the  next  two  verses, 
none  in  464,  and  but  one  example  in  465  and  466.  The  fine 
choice  and  skillful  placing  of  words,  combined,  of  course,  with 
sufiicient  attention  to  euphony  to  avoid  the  unpleasant, 
produces  the  effect  in  this  passage. 

To  describe  the  natural  delights  of  country  life  the  word 
order  is  most  simple;  each  noun  preceded  by  its  adjective, 
except  in  ojpum  variarum,  and  the  attributes  so  chosen  that, 
even  without  their  substantives,  they  yield  an  atmosphere  of 
peace,  truth  and  plenty,  space,  freshness  and  softness  about 
the  life.  Euphonic  devices  are  still  but  little  used,  except  in 
verse  470,  where  there  are  the  favorite  alliterative  pairs,  and 
the  heavy  vowels  to  give  a  depth  to  the  content. 
Et  patiens  operum  exiguoque  adsueta  iuventus, 

"8  It  cost  1000  denarii  per  pound,  according  to  Pliny,  N.  H.  12.  19.  42  §93. 


75 

with  its  important  atmosphere  of  endurance  and  restraint 
estabUshed  before  the  noun  appears,  brings  the  description 
to  its  more  sterling  excellencies,  culminating  in  sacra  deum 
sanctique  patres.  It  is  for  these  virtues  that  Justice  lingered 
last  among  them  in  her  flight  from  earth;  lustitia  echoes  and 
rounds  out  the  conception  in  iustissima  tellus.  Plainly  the 
charm  of  this  passage  does  not  rest  upon  artificiality. 

The  close  of  the  poem  shows  a  choice  and  placing  of  words 
that  has  enabled  the  poet  to  pack  with  latent  force  these 
eight  verses,  and  a  handling  of  sounds  that  supports  the 
thought  and  makes  the  verses  sing  themselves  again  and 
again  in  the  memory. 

IV.  559-66: 

Haec  super  arvorum  cultu  pecorumque  canebam 
et  super  arboribus,  Caesar  dum  magnus  ad  altum 
fulminat  Euphraten  bello  victorque  volentis 
per  populos  dat  iura  viamque  adfectat  Olympo. 
illo  Vergilium  me  tempore  dulcis  alebat 
Parthenope  studiis  florentem  ignobilis  oti, 
carmina  qui  lusi  pastorum  audaxque  iuventa, 
Tityre,  te  patulae  cecini  sub  tegmine  fagi. 

There  is  a  verse  and  a  half  of  plain  statement  ungarnished  by 
an  adjective,  with  nothing  noteworthy  in  the  order,  until 
Vergil  strikes  the  contrast  he  intends  to  make  between  Caesar's 
great  exploits  and  his  own  simple  pursuits.  Then  Caesar  is 
great,  he  flashes  with  the  brilliance  of  lightning  as  far  as 
a  distant  and  deep  river,  whose  name  itself  makes  a  round 
mouthful.  Without  pause  follow  three  words  that  tell  the 
whole  story  of  his  activities  in  the  East,  war,  conquest  and 
willing  subjection,  the  adjective  giving  the  keynote  of  the 
blessedness  of  Augustus'  accomplishments,  the  fact  that  men 
submit  and  are  glad.  The  story  spreads  out  in  per  and  the 
plural  populos,  but  order  reigns,  and  from  a  broad  world  in 
order  the  conqueror  goes  on  his  way  to  the  pinacle  of  heavenly 
bliss  in  Olympo.     It  would  seem  impossible  to  crowd  so  much 


76 

of  achievement  and  exaltation  into  less  than  three  verses, 
but  every  word  tells,  and  seems  to  tell  most  just  where  it  is 
placed,  while  the  very  vowels  of  the  words  are  deep-toned  to 
support  the  weight  and  majesty  of  the  thought.  From  this 
climax  Vergil  descends  to  his  own  slight  sphere,  shows  it  in 
the  full  contrast  of  ignoble  ease  to  great  endeavor,  but  there 
seems  to  be  a  note  of  pride  in  this  same  ease,  struck  when  he 
puts  his  own  name  to  the  fore,  making  such  haste  to  avow  his 
lesser  rank  that  one  must  suspect  that  he  did  not  feel  its 
lowliness.  It  is  the  tone  of  'I  must  confess'  to  something  the 
speaker  is  rather  proud  to  own.  So  is  begun  the  contrast, 
each  man's  name  standing  at  the  head  of  his  deeds,  but 
Vergil's  deeds  are  not  those  of  majesty,  only  those  of  charm, 
an  intangible  thing  that  he  must  make  felt  in  his  words. 
Thus,  next  after  the  identification  of  time  and  man,  the 
adjective  didcis  transports  immediately  to  a  different  atmo- 
sphere, where  the  figure  of  the  cherishing  care  of  a  baby  by 
a  nymph  of  melodious  name  touches  the  note  of  charm 
inherent  in  childhood.  The  child  himself  blossoms  like  a 
flower  in  his  pursuits  of  peace,  content  to  let  glory  pass,  until 
trifling  with  shepherd's  songs  the  youth  grows  bold  and 
flaunts  his  own  creation  at  the  world  in 

Tityre,  te  patulae  cecini  sub  tegmine  fagi. 
In  the  second  picture,  too,  there  is  a  studied  placing  of 
words  to  convey  the  effect  of  charm,  of  contrast  and  of  pride 
that  he  calls  bold,  and  one  might  think  so  were  it  not  for 
the  spreading  beech  that  covers  the  picture  and  puts  it  in  its 
true  and  charming  place.     The  liquids  prevail  in 

illo  Vergilium  me  tempore  dulcis  alebat 
Parthenope  studiis  florentem  ignobilis  oti; 

then  the  deeper  assonance  of 

carmina  qui  lusi  pastorum  audaxque  iuventa 

gives  way  to  the  light  vowels  in  the  next  verse,  which  corre- 


77 

spond  to  the  slight  estimation  Vergil  would  put  on  his  achieve- 
ments. There  is  the  alliterative  pair  heralded  by  arboribus 
in  460,  and  a  similar  pair  echoed  by  tegmine  in  the  last  verse, 
but  the  euphonic  effect  in  this  passage  depends  much  more 
upon  assonance  than  upon  alliteration,  and  what  we  have 
called  the  peculiarly  insistent  e  sound  closes  the  poem. 


Mental  Processes 

When  one  passes  from  the  more  obvious  technicalities  of 
a  poet's  style  to  the  endeavor  to  interpret  thereby  his  mental 
processes  and  predilections,  there  is  a  greater  danger  of 
reading  into  the  poet  what  is  in  the  mind  of  the  student,  which 
discourages  categorical  statement  and  forces  one  to  offer  a 
theory  rather  than  to  state  facts.  The  figurative  terms, 
however,  in  which  a  poet  clothes  his  thought,  and  the  salient 
features  of  a  description  or  a  situation,  by  which  he  brings  the 
whole  before  his  reader's  mind,  do  indicate  the  individuality 
of  the  poet  too  manifestly  to  be  overcome  by  the  personal  bias 
of  the  student.  Just  such  an  indication  of  character  is  inferred 
for  the  Roman  people  as  a  whole  by  Oscar  Weise^^^  when  he 
notes  the  wealth  of  metaphor  from  military  and  country  life 
throughout  Latin  literature. ^'° 

In  the  Georgics  the  most  striking  figure  is  personification, 
often  of  an  informal  sort,  that  makes  vital  and  vivid  things 
that  Vergil  is  expounding  and  endeavoring  to  raise  to  dignity. 
Laetas  segetes,  for  all  that  Cicero  (De.  Orat.  III.  38.  135)  notes 
it  as  a  rustic  phrase,  strikes  a  note  of  human  joy  in  the  opening 
verse  of  the  Georgics.  So  I.  47-8  (seges)  bis  quae  solem  bis 
frigora  sensit  attributes  sensitiveness  to  the  fields,  as  136 
tunc  ainos  primum  fluvii  sensere  cavatas  does  to  the  rivers. 
Examples  abound  throughout  the  poem,^^^  and  the  personi- 

"»  O.  Weise,  Chararteristik  der  lutein.  Spr.,  3te  Auflage,  S.  11-15. 

""  Campbell  and  Strong  in  their  translation  of  Weise,  p.  14,  note  that  the 
metaphors  in  Aeschylus  are  often  taken  from  wild  or  tame  animals,  those  of 
Lucretius  from  nature,  and  those  of  Pindar  from  public  games.  Bacon  was 
fond  of  metaphors  taken  from  medicine  or  surgery  (Minto,  Manual  of  Prose 
Lit.,  p.  247f.). 

"I  Compare  I.  82,  117, 124,  330.  368,449,400,  475,492;  IL  57,  75,  82,  98,  240, 
420,  et  saepe. 

78 


79 

fication  grows  stronger  in  the  third  book,  where  the  tone  of 
kinship  between  man  and  beast  pervades  the  whole  narrative, 
and  culminates  in  the  fourth  book  in  the  treatment  of  the  bees 
as  a  people,  with  king  and  laws  and  division  of  labor  and  joys 
and  passions  and  sorrows.  As  a  device  for  arousing  the 
reader's  interest  and  for  elevating  the  subject  matter  we 
might  class  this  as  a  bit  of  successful  rhetoric,  but  in  view  of 
the  philosophy  of  being  which  later  commended  itself  to 
Vergil  when  writing  Aeneid  VI  and  that  which  is  set  forth 
in  Georgics  IV.  221-7 

deum  namque  ire  per  omnes 
terrasque  tractusque  maris  caelumque  profundum ; 
hinc  pecudes,  armenta,  viros,  genus  omne  ferarum, 
quemque  sibi  tenuis  nascentem  arcessere  vitas: 
scilicet  hue  reddi  deinde  ac  resoluta  referri 
omnia,  nee  morti  esse  locum,  sed  viva  volare 
sideris  in  numerum  atque  alto  succedere  caelo. 

it  means  more  than  this  and  betokens  a  consciousness  in  the 
poet  of  the  unity  of  creation.^-^ 

Of  the  strikingly  Latin  figures  that  Weise  notes  from 
country  life  and  military  activities  there  are  instances  in  the 
Georgics,  though  the  subject  matter  precludes  much  meta- 
phorical use  of  terms  from  country  life.  The  picture  of 
Proteus  and  his  sea  calves  is  compared  to  the  shepherd  on  the 
mountain  when  his  flock  comes  in  at  evening  and  the  bleating 
of  the  lambs  rouses  the  wolves  (IV.  433-5).  The  verb  that 
denotes  the  taming  or  breaking  of  animals  is  extended  to  the 

122  The  philosophy  is  put  here  in  the  mouth  of  quidam  (219),  as  in  Aen.  VI.  724  ff . 
it  is  assigned  with  more  weight  to  Anchises  as  one  who  knows  and  speaks  with 
authority.  Vergil  has  not  seen  fit  to  avow  his  own  acceptance  of  the  doctrine, 
but  his  repetition  of  it  in  the  Aeneid  is  usually  taken  as  indicative  of  his  creed, 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  it  need  not  contradict  the  passage  I.  415  ff.  which  is 
usually  interpreted  as  Epicurean  and  materialistic.  Species  animorum  can 
hardly  be  made  to  yield  "the  phases  of  their  life,"  as  Conington  translates  it, 
but  declares  in  animorum  the  spiritual  side  of  the  bird  nature,  and  puts  this  in 
agreement  with  the  phases  of  what  we  call  weather  and  what  Vergil  calls  the 
divine  Jupiter.  He  claims  for  the  birds  no  unusual  prophetic  powers,  but  a 
share  in  the  spirit  communion  between  nature  animate  and  inanimate. 


80 

elm  that  is  broken  from  its  wild  state  on  the  mountain  to 
serve  as  a  plough  (I.  169-70).  Similarly  all  the  trees  must  be 
tamed,  11.  61  cogendae  in  sulcum  ac  multa  mercede  domandae. 
In  IV.  136  winter  bridles  the  rivers  with  ice,  glacie  cursus 
frenaret  aqnanim. 

Contest  appears  in  terms  of  war;  in  the  sustained  military 
metaphor  of  the  storm  scene  analyzed  in  the  preceding  chapter 
(I.  318  ff.:  see  above,  pp.  69-72);  where  the  husbandman 
gives  his  orders  to  the  fields  (imperat  arvis  I.  99)  as  a  general 
to  his  force;  where  labor  conquers  everything  {labor  omnia 
licit,  I.  145);  in  the  fire  that  conquers  and  rules  through  the 
tree  tops  (victor  jJerque  alia  cacumina  regnat  11.  307);  where 
the  vine  receives  commands  as  did  the  field  earlier  (dura  exerce' 
imperia,  II.  370);  where  the  bull  returns  to  battle  with  his 
rival  (signa  movet,  III.  236) ;  and  even  where  there  is  no  con- 
flict, a  flock  of  ravens  is  corvorum  exercitus  (II.  382).  The 
tree  is  too  tall  for  an  arrow  in  flight  to  o'ertop  it  (I.  123); 
the  vines  are  to  be  planted  in  rows  like  an  army  drawn  up 
on  an  open  field  (II.  277  ff.);  the  African  herdsman  carries 
with  him  all  his  baggage  as  did  the  Roman  soldier  on  the 
march^'^  (III.  347) ;  the  poet  must  conquer  his  unpoetic  theme 
by  his  words  (III,  289).  Nature's  contest  is  over  with  the 
regions  of  the  earth  and  she  has  imposed  treaties  and  fixed 
laws  (I.  60-1  has  leges  aeternaque  foedera  certis  imposuit  natura 
locis);  and  as  the  result  of  man's  warfare  on  barren  ground 
the  birds  find  themselves  dispossessed  of  their  ancient  home- 
steads (II.  209),  a  sympathetic  touch  from  a  man  who  shared 
the  same  fate. 

The  figure  of  the  master  rather  than  the  victor  gives  domin- 
antur  avenae  (I.  154),  while  the  other  side  of  the  picture  is 
seen  in  serviat  ultima  Thide  (I.  30).  Belonging  to  home  life, 
as  do  these  two  metaphors,  are  the  house  and  barn  of  the 

"3  Here,  carrying  the  description  farther  than  the  comparison  warrants,  the 
poet  makes  the  soldiers  form  in  line  to  meet  a  sudden  foe. 


81 

mouse  and  the  chambers  of  the  mole  (I.  181-3);  tenera  lanae 
vellera  of  the  clouds  (I.  397);  coquat  aestas  (I.  66)  of  the  sun 
drying  the  fresh  clods  of  earth ;  excoquitur  vitium  atque  exsudat 
inutilis  umor  (I.  88)  of  the  effect  of  burning  a  field,  like  puri- 
fication by  boiling.  Vesiibulum  of  the  space  before  the  bees' 
hive  (IV.  20),  cunabula  of  the  cells  (IV.  66),  the  drone  sitting 
at  another  man's  table  (IV.  244  sedem  aliena  ad  pahula)  and 
the  funerals  of  the  bees  (exportant  tectis  et  tristia  funera  ducunt, 
IV.  256)  are  of  the  same  kind. 

The  idea  of  motherhood  is  frequently  used,  of  the  crops 
themselves  in  the  storm  scene  (I.  315  ff.);  of  the  older  tree 
from  which  the  laurel  shoots  come  {parva  sub  ingenti  matris  se 
subicit  umbra,  II.  19),  and  again  in  II.  55  nunc  altae  frondes 
et  rami  matris  opacant;  of  the  new  field  which  the  transplanted 
seeds  must  recognize  as  their  mother  (mutatam  ignorent  subito 
ne  semina  matrem,  II.  268) ;  and  in  the  figure  borrowed  from 
Lucretius  (I.  259)  of  pater  Aether,  terra  coniunx  (II.  324-30). 
The  poet's  own  activity  is  referred  to  under  the  terms  of 
the  games  or  of  a  voyage.  The  deified  Caesar  is  to  be  gracious 
and  grant  him  a  smooth  course  (I.  40  dafacilem  cursum),  and 
Maecenas  is  called  on  to  spread  sails  for  the  open  sea  and  go 
with  the  poet  the  way  of  the  second  book  (II.  41  Maecenas, 
pelagoque  volans  da  vela  patenti).  At  the  opening  of  the  third 
book  Vergil  is  at  once  poet,  priest  and  victor,  for  he  sings  and 
serves  the  temple  and  receives  the  homage  of  Greece,  forsaking 
her  own  games  to  acknowledge  him  the  victor  (III.  10  ff.).^^^ 
At  the  end  of  the  second  book  the  poet  has  covered  the  course 
and  is  ready  to  free  the  steaming  necks  of  his  steeds  (II.  441-2) 
(Compare  II.  364).  Later  he  would  like  to  talk  of  gardens 
were  he  not  drawing  his  sails  and  hastening  to  turn  his  prow 
to  land  (IV.  Ill  ni  ..  .  vela  traham  et  terris  festinem  advertere 
proram). 

"■1  The  spirit  of  war  spreads  over  the  earth  with  the  speed  of  a  chariot  on  a 
race  course  (I.  512-4). 


82 

A  like  simile  tells  how  fleeting  are  the  things  of  life,  which 
slip  back  as  does  one  who  rows  against  a  stream  and  for  a 
moment  relaxes  his  effort  (I.  201-2  non  aliter  quam  qui  adverso 
vix  fliimine  lemhum  remigiis  suhigit,  si  bracchia  forte  remisit). 
Again,  winter  makes  the  farmer  as  free  from  care  as  the 
sailors  who  bring  to  port  a  ship  hard  pressed  by  storm  and 
deck  its  prow  in  thanksgiving  (I.  303-4) : 

ceu  pressae  cum  iam  portum  tetigere  carinae 
puppibus  et  laeti  nautae  imposuere  coronas. 

The  bees  balance  themselves  with  a  pebble  as  a  boat  in  a 
tossing  sea  takes  ballast  (IV.  195  ut  cumbae  instabiles  fiuctu 
iadante  saburram  \  tollunt). 

Often  the  figure  comes  from  nature,  as  when  the  race  horse 
goes  as  the  north  wind  sweeping  things  before  it  (III.  196-201), 
and  the  bull  returning  to  fight  is  like  an  overwhelming  wave 
that  strikes  the  shore  and  raises  the  sand  (III.  237-41). 
Disease  among  cattle  spreads  faster  than  the  whirlwind  that 
brings  the  storm  at  sea  (III.  470),  and  the  creatures  of  the  sea 
lie  dead  on  the  shore  like  shipwrecked  bodies  (III.  542).  The 
bees  are  as  thick  as  hail  in  the  air,  or  acorns  from  the  oak 
(IV.  80-1),  and  their  attack  is  called  a  hard  storm  {duram 
hiemem,  IV.  239).  The  buzzing  of  the  bees  is  like  the  cold 
wind  that  murmurs  in  the  forest,  or  like  the  noise  of  the  sea 
when  the  waves  roll  back,  or  like  a  fire  roaring  shut  in  a  furnace 
(IV.  261-3).  The  new  bees  come  from  the  body  of  the 
bullock  as  rain  from  summer  clouds,  or  (here  comes  the  touch 
from  war)  as  the  arrows  of  the  Parthians  (IV.  312-14).  In 
Orcus  the  shades  gather  around  Orpheus  as  do  the  birds  seeking 
refuge  at  evening  or  from  a  winter  rain^-^  (IV.  474) ;  Orpheus 
mourns  for  Eurydice  as  the  nightingale  for  her  lost  young 
(IV.  511).  The  bees  are  now  a  cloud,  and  now  a  cluster  that 
hangs  from  a  bough  (IV.  60,  557,  558  obscuramque  nubem — 
immensas  nubes — lentis  uvam  r emitter e  ramis).     Multitude  is 

I"  Compare  Aen.  VI.  309-12. 


83 

expressed  by  the  sands  tossed  by  Zephyrus,  or  the  waves  of  the 
Ionian  sea  when  Eurus  stirs  it  (II.  105-8). 

There  are  a  few  images  that  suggest  the  public  Ufe  at  Rome, 
as  when  the  lasting  wines  are  represented  as  rising  to  yield  place 
to  the  wine  from  Aminnea  (II.  98),  much  as  the  younger  men 
in  the  senate  might  do  to  an  older  and  worthier  senator.^^e 
So  the  white  bulls  beside  Clitumnus  bring  to  Vergil's  mind 
the  picture  of  the  triumphal  procession  which  they  may  lead 
to  the  temples  of  the  gods  (II.  148),  and  the  theatre  is  to 
contribute  to  the  festivities  following  the  poet's  victory  (III. 
25  intexti  tollant  aulaea  Britanni).  As  noted  before,  the 
activities  of  the  bees  are  pictured  as  those  of  a  city  state,  and 
metaphors  from  city  life  must  enter  there,  but  otherwise  they 
are  few.  The  very  phases  of  that  life  that  yielded  so  many 
common  metaphors  in  Latin,  those  pointed  out  by  Weise  as 
of  judicial  and  administrative  origin,  were  the  things  that 
Vergil  congratulated  the  farmer  on  missing  (II.  501-12).  He 
would  not  thrust  such  thoughts  before  his  contented  country 
folk,  nor  had  they  taken  great  hold  upon  his  own  mind.  It 
is  the  misery  that  one  must  see  and  can  not  remedy,  the 
courts,  the  forum,  the  soul-killing  record-keeping  as  well  as 
the  wearying  ceremony  of  life,  the  press  of  state  and  greed  of 
gold  and  power  that  Vergil  would  be  free  from  when  he  leaves 
the  city  and  answers  the  enticing  call  of  the  country .^^7  These 
are  the  things  that  he  puts  from  his  mind  and  from  his  speech. 
Belonging  to  none  of  these  categories  is  the  comparison  of 
the  labor  among  the  bees  to  that  of  the  Cyclopes  beneath 
Aetna  (IV.  170  ff.),  and  the  queer  description  of  the  bee  as 

««  Compare  Tyrtaeus,  Fr.  10 — Hiller-Crusius, 

irdvres  5'  iv  doiKOiaiv  o/j-Qi  vioi  o'i  re  Kar   avrbv 
iLKovaiv  x^PV^  0'  ''■^  7raXai6repoi 
and  Eclogue  VI.  68. 

1"  Compare  Juvenal's  charges  against  Rome  in  the  third  satire,  where  it  is 
the  noise,  discomfort,  lack  of  opportunity  for  the  Roman  because  of  the  lying 
and  all-absorbing  Greek  that  would  drive  one  to  the  country  in  very  disgust. 


84 

dingy  as  the  dirt  covered  traveller  who  is  parched  and  choked 
with  dust  (IV.  96).  More  bookish  is  the  likening  of  bleeding 
cattle  during  the  plague  to  the  practice  of  the  Bisaltae,  and 
the  Geloni,  who  go  off  to  the  desert  and  mountains  and  draw 
blood  from  the  horses's  feet  that  they  may  mix  it  with  milk 
and  drink  it  (III.  4G1-3). 

From  war,  then,  the  home,  nature,  the  games  of  Greece, 
the  sea,  and,  to  but  slight  extent,  from  city  life  comes  Vergil's 
figurative  language  in  the  Georgics,  indicating  the  strength 
of  the  impression  these  had  made  upon  him,  and  the  fondness 
of  his  mind  to  dwell  on  them. 

No  less  indicative  are  the  salient  features  by  which  he 
describes  a  scene,  or  the  little  touches  by  which  he  reveals 
his  own  associations  with  an  object.  The  aster,  whose  root  is 
to  be  boiled  in  wine  and  put  as  food  for  the  bees,  is  described 
minutely,  and  the  poet's  association  with  it  is  marked  by  its 
frequent  use  to  adorn  the  altars  (IV.  276  ^ae/^e  deum  nexis 
ornatae  torquihns  arae).  The  heavy  heat  that  lies  on  the 
burning  rocks  (II.  377)  is  a  vivid  characterization  of  summer 
that  speaks  of  direct  contact, 

aut  gravis  incumbens  scopulis  arentibus  aestas.'-* 

So  the  planting  time  for  vines  is  when  the  white  bird  comes, 
the  foe  to  the  long  serpents  (II.  320).  How  was  the  wor- 
shipper's attention  wandering  when  at  the  libation  to  Bacchus 
he  noted  the  fat  Tyrrhenian  puffing  into  his  ivory  mouthpiece 
(II.  193)?^^^  There  is  a  whimsical  touch  in  the  picture  of  the 
bees  drying  themselves  on  the  bridge  after  a  tumble  into  the 
water  (IV.  27  ff.),  as,  later,  in  the  pinch  of  dust  scattering 
their  great  hosts  (IV.  87).^^°    The  thrifty  housekeeping  of 

"8  Note  the  different  touch  for  the  pleasanter  heat  of  autumn,  in  II.  522, 
mitis  in  apricis  coquitur  vindemia  saxis. 

>29  Compare  Cat.,  39.  11  obesus  Etruscus. 

130  Professor  Shorey  in  a  comment  on  Horace,  Odes  I.  28.  3  notes  this  verse 
of  the  Georgics  'in  exquisite  symbolism'  as  a  parallel  to  the  three  handfuls  of 
dust  the  restless  spirit  of  the  unburied  sailor  begs,  but  the  bees  are  not  dead, 
only  restored  to  their  own  or  a  new  hive. 


85 

the  mouse  and  the  mole  has  the  same  quality  (I.  181-3)  and 
so  has  the  figure  of  the  cucumber  growing  to  its  comfortable 
middle-age  (IV.  122  tortusque  -per  herbam  cresceret  in  ventrem 
cucumis).  Such  phrases  as  these  are  as  near  as  the  poet  gets 
to  the  humorous,  but  the  pathetic  is  never  very  far  from  the 
surface.  It  is  felt  in  the  note  of  hardship  in  man's  life,  the 
repetition  of  labor,  the  characterization  of  the  race  as  durum 
genus  (I.  63)  and  the  very  want  that  makes  him  master 
everything,  I.  145-6:  labor  omnia  vicit  \  improbus  et  duris 
urgens  in  rebus  egestas.  If  he  is  not  constant  in  his  efforts, 
he  must  look  on  in  vain  at  another's  plenty  and  solace  his  own 
hunger  with  the  acorns  of  the  forest  (I.  158-9).  There  lurks 
disappointment  in  the  very  nature  of  things.  Picked  seeds 
degenerate  and  go  back  to  their  poor  state  (I.  198) ;  compare 
I.  200  Sic  omnia  fatis  \  in  peius  ruere  ac  retro  suhlapsa  referri. 
The  birds  routed  from  their  nests  in  the  fields  by  the  farmers 
(II.  209-10),  the  fields  themselves  unkempt  and  pathetic  with 
their  tillers  gone  (I.  507),  the  fruitless  oleaster  wath  its  bitter 
leaves,  all  that  is  left  of  the  orchard  and  vineyard  that  have 
been  burned  (II.  314),  touch  the  same  note.  The  defeated 
bull  who  must  leave  his  dominion  (III.  228  et  stabula  aspectans 
regnis  excessit  avitis),  the  ox  grieving  for  his  brother's  death 
(III.  518,  maerentem  abiungens  fraterna  morte  iuvencum) ,  the 
pitiful  huddled  mass  of  creatures  covered  with  snow  and 
dying,  III.  368-70 

intereunt  pecudes,  stant  circumfusa  pruinia 
corpora  magna  bourn,  confertoque  agmine  cervi 
torpent  mole  nova  et  summis  vix  cornibus  exstant, 

had  all  touched  his  heart.     The  figure  of  Aristaeus  himself 
is  pathetic  as  he  comes  to  reproach  his  mother  for  his  fallen 
state,  but  the  most  exquisite  pathos  of  the  poem  is  in  the 
Orpheus-Eurydice  myth,  reaching  its  climax  in  IV.  498 
invalidasque  tibi  tendens,  heu  non  tua,  palmas. 
The  part  that  sound  played  in  Vergil's  imagery  is  striking 


86 

in  the  Georgics.  It  seems  to  have  been  to  him  what  light  and 
flash  and  speed  were  to  Pindar.  Professor  Gildersleeve  says 
of  Pindar,'^^  "He  drains  dry  the  Greek  vocabulary  of  words 
for  light  and  bright,  shine  and  shimmer,  glitter  and  glister, 
ray  and  radiance,  flame  and  flare  and  flash,  gleam  and  glow, 
burn  and  blaze.  The  first  Olympian  begins  with  wealth  and 
strength,  the  flaming  fire  of  gold, ^^-  and  the  shining  star  of  the 
sun.  The  fame  of  Hieron  is  resplendent,  and  the  shoulder  of 
Pelops  gleams.  No  light  like  the  light  of  the  eye,  thought  the 
Greek,  and  the  ancestors  of  Theron  were  the  eye  of  Sicily,  and 
Adrastos  longs  for  the  missing  eye  of  his  army.  So  the  mid- 
month  moon  in  her  golden  chariot  flashed  full  the  eye  of 
evening  into  the  face  of  Heracles." 

There  is  gleam  and  flash  in  the  Georgics  and  color  too,  green 
and  white  and  gold  and  red  and  purple.  How  could  there  be 
an  Italian  landscape  without  it?  The  visual  type  of  imagery 
is  commonest,  and  even  in  persons  of  the  so-called  mixed  type 
it  is  apt  to  play  quite  a  part,^^^  but  the  auditory  imagery,  to 
the  degree  it  is  seen  in  the  Georgics,  indicates  an  unusual 
sensitiveness  to  sound,  which  made  that  often  the  means  of 
the  poet's  own  memory  and  his  means  of  presenting  that 
memory  to  others. 

Most  frequently  mentioned  is  some  sound  in  connection  with 
water  (9  times  in  the  poem),  the  hoarse  murmuring  of  water 
as  it  falls  over  rocks  (I.  109,  ilia  cadens  raucum  'per  levia 
murmur  \  saxa  ciet),  the  surging  of  rain  swollen  torrents  (I. 
326-7  implentur  fossae  et  cava  flumina  crescunt  \  cum  sonitu 
fervetque  fretis  spirantihus  aequor),  the  rising  of  the  waters  in 
Lake  Benacus  (II.  160  fiuctihu^  et  fremitu  adsurgens  Benace 
marino),  the  roar  of  the  sea  as  it  beats  against  the  mole  and 
is  dashed  back  (11.  162-3  atque  indignatum  magnis  stridoribus 

"1  Gildersleeve,  Olympian  and  Pythian  Odes,  Introd.,  p.  xxxvi. 
"2  Gold  strikes  one  everywhere  in  all  the  odes. 

W  E.  B.  Titchener,  Experimental  Psychology,  Qualitative  Instructor's 
Manual,  pp.  387-93. 


87 

aequor  \  lulia  qua  ponto  longe  sonat  unda  refuso),  the  loud 
boom  of  the  wave  on  the  rocks  of  the  shore  (III.  239  ad  terras 
immane  sonat  per  saxa),  the  triple  sound  of  thunder  in  heaven, 
the  echo  of  the  sea  against  the  cliffs,  and  the  parents  of  the 
youth  calling  him  back  (III.  261-2  porta  tonat  caeli,  et  scopulis 
inlisa  reclamant  \  aequora;  nee  miseri  possunt  revocare 
parentes),  the  noise  of  the  waters  of  the  Ascanius  (III.  269 
illas  ducit  amor  trans  Gar  gar  a  transque  sonantem  \  Ascanium), 
of  the  sea  (IV.  262  ut  mare  sollicitum  stridit  refluentibus  undis), 
and  again  of  the  Hypanis  as  it  flows  over  the  rocks  (IV.  370 
saxosusque  sonans  Hypanis). 

Next  in  frequency  are  sounds  in  the  woods;  the  dry  crashing 
in  the  wind  (I.  357-8  aridm  altis  \  montibus  audiri  fragor, 
II.  441  ipsae  Caucasio  steriles  in  vertice  silva  \  quas  animosi 
Euri  assidue  franguntque  feruntque  (assisted  by  the  /  and  r 
of  the  last  two  words).  III.  199-200  summaeque  sonorem  \ 
dant  silvae,  IV.  261  jrigidus  ut  quondam  sihis  immurmurat 
Auster).  The  grove  beneath  the  sea  in  Gyrene's  realm  sounds 
too  (IV.  364  lucosque  sonantis).  Winds  and  woods  and  shore 
are  all  involved  in  the  following  passages : 
I.  334  nunc  nemora  ingenti  vento,  nunc  litora  plangunt 

I.  358-9  ^^^  resonantia  longe 

litora  misceri  et  nemorum  increbrescere  murmur 

(in  this  passage  the  wind  sound  has  appeared  alone  before, 
then  upon  the  mountains  and  here  unites  with  both  woods  and 
sea).  In  none  of  these  places  is  the  flash  of  the  water  or  of 
the  leaves  in  the  forest  called  to  one's  attention,  save  that  the 
wave  that  bursts  against  the  rocks  with  the  booming  sound 
began  to  grow  white  out  at  sea  (III.  237).  To  announce  the 
irrigating  stream  as  it  comes  down  over  the  rocks  there  is  ecce 
(I.  108),  but  this  can  hardly  be  pushed  to  yield  description  of 
the  flash  of  water.  A  flash  of  lightning  follows  the  noise  of 
the  waters  (I.  328),  but  this  looks  forward  to  the  rest  of  the 
passage  and  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  gleam  of  water. 


In  addition  to  wind  and  water  and  woods,  tliere  is  tlie 
whispering  patch  of  lupin  (I.  75-6  tristisque  Iwpini  \  sustuleris 
fragilis  calamos  sihamque  sonantem),  the  patter  of  hail  on 
the  roof  (I.  449  tarn  multa  in  tectis  crepitans  salit  horrida 
grando),  the  crackling  sound  of  fire  (II.  306  {ignis)  ingentem 
caelo  sonitum  dedit,  IV.  409  (Proteus)  aut  acrem  flammae 
sonitum  dabit,  IV.  263  nt  clausis  rapidus  fornacibus  ignis), 
the  whispering  west  wind  (III.  322  at  vero  Zephyris  cum  laeta 
vocantibus  aestas),  an  echo  from  the  rocks  (IV.  49-50  aut  ubi 
concava  pulsu   \   saxa  sonant  vocisque  offensa  resultat  imago). 

One  might  expect  the  mention  of  birds  to  bring  the  sound 
image,  but  it  is  not  only  their  cries  and  songs,  but  the  noise 
of  their  wings  as  well  that  has  caught  Vergil's  ear.  He 
mentions  the  cry  of  the  ravens  (I.  382,  413,  423),  the  crow 
(I.  388),  the  owl  (I.  402),  song  of  birds  in  spring  (II.  328) 
and  at  evening  (III.  338),  the  chattering  of  the  swallow 
(IV.  307),  and  the  lament  of  the  nightingale  (IV.  510-15). 
But  at  I.  407,  ecce  inimicus  atrox  magna  stridore  per  auras, 
Vergil  has  in  mind  the  noise  of  the  hawk's  wings,  and  at 
I.  361-2,  cum  medio  celeres  revolant  ex  aequore  mergi  \ 
clamoremque  ferunt  ad  litora,  the  gulls'  wings  or  possibly 
their  cry.  Then  there  is  the  querulous  note  of  the  cicada, 
III.  328,  et  cantu  querulae  rumpunt  arbusta  cicadae,  the  cry 
of  the  frog,  I.  378  et  veterem  in  Umo  ranae  cecinere  quereUam, 
who  even  when  he  is  but  food  for  the  serpent  is  loquax  (III. 
431).  The  cries  of  the  wolves  echo  in  the  city,  I.  486  per 
noctem  resonare  lupis  ululantibus  urbes.  The  lowing  of  oxen 
betokens  now  contentment  for  the  farmer  (II.  470),  now  pain 
when  stung  by  the  gadfly  (III.  150),  now  their  last  agony  in 
the  description  of  the  plague  (III.  554-5).  In  their  fight  the 
bulls  bellow  until  the  forests  and  the  sky  resound  (III.  223), 
the  defeated  bull  goes  off  with  a  low  moaning  over  his  disgrace 
(III.  226),  and  there  is  the  same  low  tone  of  grief  when  one 
ox  sees  the  other  dead  at  his  side  under  the  yoke  (III.  517-18). 


The  serpents  are  known  by  their  hiss  (III.  421),  and  the  bees 
by  their  buzzing  (IV.  79,  188,  216,  260,  310),  which  becomes  a 
battle  shout  in  IV.  76  miscentur  magnisque  meant  damoribus 
hostem. 

It  is  noise,  not  sights,  that  frightens  Vergil's  horse  (III.  79 
mnos  horret  strepitus),  and  when  he  travels  there  is  a  good 
sohd  sound  from  his  solid  hoof  (III.  88  ct  solido  graviter  sonat 
ungula  cornu),  and  it  is  by  sound  that  his  course  in  the  ring 
is  marked  (III.  191  incipiat  gradibusque  sonare  \  compositis). 
Despite  the  fact  that  Saturn  is  fleeing  from  Rhea  on  Mount 
Pelion,  because  he  becomes  a  horse,  Vergil  makes  him  neigh 
(III.  94) .  The  first  characteristic  of  the  gadfly  is  acerba  sonans 
(III.  149).  The  lambs  begin  bleating  at  evening  and  arouse 
the  wolves  (IV.  435). 

There  is  the  sound  of  arms  (I.  474)  that  Germany  hears  at 
Caesar's  death,  and  the  sound  of  arms  that  sets  the  war-horse 
aquiver  with  eagerness  (III.  83).  The  blast  of  the  trumpet 
men  did  not  have  to  hear  in  the  Golden  Age  (II.  539),  but  the 
war-horse  must  learn  to  endure  it  now  (III.  183),  and  even 
the  bees  have  learned  to  give  a  trumpet  sound  in  time  of  war 
(IV.  71-2).  The  noise  of  the  forging  of  swords  was  once 
unknown  (II.  540),  but  the  poet  knows  the  pounding  and 
clashing  of  a  forge  beneath  Aetna's  groaning  (IV.  173),  and 
the  sound  of  hot  metal  dipped  in  water  (IV.  172).  The  bees 
are  to  be  attracted  by  the  sound  of  cymbals  (IV.  64),  as  once 
they  were  drawn  to  Dicte  by  the  chants  and  drums  of  the 
Curetes  (IV.  151).  The  beechen  axle  clatters  behind  the  well- 
broken  oxen  (III.  173),  and,  when  after  the  plague  the  men 
themselves  must  take  the  oxen's  place,  the  wains  creak  on 
their  way  (III.  536).  The  horse  must  learn  to  love  the  rattle 
of  bits  in  the  stable  (III.  184),  his  master's  words  of  praise, 
and,  queerest  auditory  image  of  them  all,  the  sound  of  the  pat 
upon  his  neck  (III.  185-6). 

The  description  of  the  farmer's  winter  evening  includes 


90 

sounds  of  the  housewife's  song  and  the  whirr  of  the  shuttle 

(I.  293-4).     With  songs  and  shouts  do  the  rustics  call  Ceres 

to  their  homes  (I.  346-50),  the  Italian  spring  festival  is  full  of 

laughter  and  song   (II.   386).     The  man  who  has  finished 

planting  his    rows  comes  in  singing  over  it   (II.  417  canit 

effectos  cxtrcmus  vitiitor  antes),  and  the  old  Corycian  comes 

in  grumbling  against  the  late  spring  (IV.  138).     There  is  a 

strange  presaging  voice  at  Caesar's  death  (I.  476),  and  the 

flocks  talk  (I.  478);  it  is  the  sound    of  Aristaeus'  grief  that 

strikes  the  ear  of  his  mother  (IV.  350)  among  the  nymphs  to 

whom  Clymene  has  been  telling  the  story  of  Mars  and  Venus. 

Proteus  is  angry  and  gnashes  his  teeth  at  Aristaeus  (IV.  452). 

The  Dryad  chorus  shows  its  grief  at  Eurydice's  death  by  wails 

that  fill  the  mountains  (IV.  460),  and  Orpheus  seeks  his  solace 

from  his  lyre  (IV.  464).     Three  times  is  the  clash  of  Avernus 

heard  as  it  closes  on  Eurydice  crying  aloud  to  him  (IV.  493). 

Then  there  is  Orpheus'  song  among  the  deserted  hills  and  the 

voice  of  his  complaining  (IV.  510-20),  his  cry  of  'Eurydice' 

and  its  echo.     Of  course  the  whole  story  is  necessarily  full  of 

music.     Perhaps  that  was  one  of  its  charms  to  Vergil.     It 

seems  significant  that  in  the  last  verses  of  the  poem  Augustus 

flashes  his  glory  (fulminat,  561),  while  Vergil  sang    (cecini, 
566). 134 

The  rather  subtle  handling  of  euphonic  devices  noted  in 
the  third  chapter,  and  the  large  part  that  sound  plays  in 
Vergil's  imagery  and  in  his  memory  of  scenes  betoken  a  keen 
sensitiveness  to  this  means  of  perception.  The  appeal  of 
sound  to  him  is,  so  to  speak,  an  outward  and  visible  sign  of 

"<  For  a  study  of  Vergil's  association  of  ideas  in  the  "sound  series"  see 
Roiron,  Etude  sur  I'imagination  auditive  de  Virgile.  He  deduces  some  eight 
results  (pp.  631-3)  showing  among  others  that  sound  in  Vergil  is  not  an  abstract 
idea,  but  a  sense  perception  objective  and  vigorous,  is  associated  with  the  cause 
that  has  produced  it  or  the  action  which  it  ends;  the  intensity  of  the  sound  is 
its  most  characteristic  feature,  and  certain  associations  of  sound  are  frequent 
enough  to  be  called  characteriatic  of  Vergil. 


91 

the  inward  and  spiritual  harmony  that  shows  itself  in  the 
whiteness  of  his  soul  (Hor.,  Sat.,  I.  5.  41,  Donat.  Vit.  ch.  11), 
in  the  smooth  and  even  structure  of  his  sentences,^^^  in  the 
elusive  melody  of  his  verse,  in  the  suavitas  et  lenocinium  mirum 
of  his  own  reading  voice  (Donat,  Vit.  ch.  28),  and,  despite  his 
Roman  characteristics  and  his  patriotism,  in  his  greater  love 
for  peace  and  beauty  than  for  contest,  even  with  victory.  It 
is  this  harmony  that  keeps  him  from  being  carried  away  by 
Roman  sturdiness  or  Greek  fancy  or  Alexandrian  artificiality. 
All  the  devices  of  the  poets  and  the  rhetoricians  that  have 
preceded  him  he  knows,  but  he  is  slave  to  none.  There  has 
been  much  talk  throughout  this  study  of  his  use,  but  not 
abuse,  of  his  tools.  It  is  the  characteristic  that  strikes  one 
everywhere  in  the  poem,  the  much  valued  restraint  of  Roman 
character,  but  in  Vergil's  case  a  restraint  that  seems  inborn 
rather  than  acquired.  One  feels  that  his  is  not  so  much  the 
ars  artem  celandi  as  the  ideal  mingling  that  Lucretius  ordains 
for  his  atoms: 

emineat  ne  quid  quod  contra  pugnet  et  obstet 
quominus  esse  queat  proprie  quodcumque  creatur, 

"5  See  The  Sentence  Structure  of  Vergil,  A.  R.  Crittenden,  where  by  contrast 
with  Lucretius,  Ennius  and  others  Vergil's  tendency  to  the  associative  rather 
than  the  apperceptive  type  of  sentence  and  to  descending  rather  than  ascending 
structure  is  treated.  Compare  the  placing  of  words  by  the  principle  of  likeness 
rather  than  contrast  noted  above  (p.  45). 


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the  Modern,  translated  by  C.  W.  Super.     Boston,  1887. 
Oskar  Weise.      Characteristik  der  lateinischen  Sprache,    4te    Auflage. 

Leipzig,  1909.     Also  the  translation  by  Strong  and  Campbell,  The 

Language  and  Character  of  the  Roman  People.     London,  1909. 
S.  E.  Winbolt.     Latin  Hexameter  Verse.     London,  1903. 
E.  Wolfllin.     Der  Reim  im  Lateinischen.    Archiv  fiir  lateinische  Lexiko- 

graphie,  etc..  Vol.  1,  1884. 
Uber    die    alliterierenden    Verbindungen     der    Lateinischen    Sprache. 

Sitzungsbericht  der  Akademie  der  Wissenschaften.     Miinchen,  1881. 
T.  H.  Wright.     Style,  ed.   F.   N.   Scott.     Boston,   1895.     Printed  with 

Herbert  Spencer's  Philosophy  of  Style. 
Carl  Ziwsa.     Die  eurhythmische  Technik  des  Catullus.     Wien,  1879. 


VITA 

Meta  Glass  was  born  August  16,  1880,  at  Petersburg,  Vir- 
ginia. She  was  graduated  from  Randolph-Macon  Woman's 
College  with  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  in  1899.  In  1901-4 
she  was  instructor  in  German  in  Randolph-Macon,  and  in 
1904-8  she  was  teacher  of  Latin  in  the  Roanoke  High  School, 
Roanoke,  Virginia.  During  the  years  1908-12  she  was  a 
student  at  Columbia  University,  under  the  direction  of  Pro- 
fessors George  Willis  Botsford,  James  Chidester  Egbert, 
Charles  Knapp,  Nelson  Glenn  McCrea,  George  N.  Olcott, 
Harry  Thurston  Peck,  Edward  Delavan  Perry,  James  Rignall 
Wheeler,  Clarence  Hoffman  Young  and  Dr.  Roscoe  Guernsey. 
In  1912  she  was  elected  Adjunct-Professor  of  Latin  at 
Randolph-Macon  Woman's  College. 


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